


Miles to go

by d_aia



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-25 04:58:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 42,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d_aia/pseuds/d_aia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Loki resorts to dubious methods to get the attention of the All-father he unleashes a chain of events nobody could have predicted. Not even him. </p><p>Post Iron Man 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A big thanks to my beta, Alexandra, who has supported me and put up with my bullshit. Thank you, hon! All the remaining mistakes are my own and I take full responsibility for them. Feel free to point them out.  
> Next update: Tuesday.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the movies.

Chapter 1

POV: Loki

Drip, drip, drip. A moment of blessed silence. Then drip, drip, drip. Loki rolled his eyes and sighed. He had had enough with damnable drip. Now, Loki could not perform spells in prison, since they would just rebound, but he did not need spells, he just needed a plan. His green eyes located the drip and followed it through to the source.

It was a small opening through the rock which, considering that the prison was actually a mountain and the cells were naturally occurring caves with bars, was probably from a stream deep within the mountain. So he could find another loose stone, but then it will be just a matter of time until it would drip again. Or he could enlarge it and let one of the guards deal with it, though they were likely to leave it as it was out of respect for Loki as a person.

The floor was already sloped towards the bars, all it needed was some sort of canal that would take the water from the place in the wall to the outside. He cast about for something that would be of use. A wolfish smile appeared on his face when he saw it. Of course his meals would come with cutlery since there were spells in place that would notify the sentinels immediately if he somehow managed to dig a hole deeper than the length of an arm in any direction or hurt himself with them. Such nefarious reasons why a prisoner would use them thus subverted all that remained was its use as a cutlery. Why should they not eat like proper Aesir even though they definitely did not live like them? He snorted. Typical.

Still, it was useful to him presently. Seizing the knife, he began to dig a furrow in the stone. A small one, only the depth of a couple of his fingers, more scratching then gouging but in a few of hours’ time it was done. All that remained was loosening the stone, the drip would be gone and he would have the relaxing sound of water flowing through his cell.

He lounged back on his bed absently noting that the sky darkened, so the sentinels had forgotten once more to bring his meal. No matter, the dripping has stopped. He closed his eyes in bliss.

They snapped open as a thought struck him with the force of Thor’s lightning and made him rise until he was perched on the edge of the bed. That was what he used to do. That was who he was used to be: the planner, the trickster. He used to be the clay that changes shapes as the situation requires it and not the stone that stays the same in the face of adversity, which is only changed by the water and the winds after centuries. What was he thinking attacking like that, in the open, with nothing more than a feeble plan to divide those who would stand in his way?

Loki was definitely not Thor, but he had accepted that and learned to work around it. Or so he thought.

With a bitter chuckle he lowered his face in his hands and scrubbed at it feeling as if he had awoken after a long sleep. If he did, then it was a nightmare, because he definitely was not the same person anymore. But he was not a stone either. In the silence that followed the tinkling of water infiltrated his thoughts. Of course, he was a planner.

And he had just conceived a plan that would help to not only give him his freedom, but also to get revenge on Thanos. Fine, he had a small bout of insanity or not so small. But nobody tortures the God of Mischief, especially nobody who expects to circumvent the consequences. Loki was inclined to forgive his transgressions due to an error in judgment and the fact that they are his, nonetheless he was not about to excuse others’, mostly because they were made against him.

Satisfied with his course of actions, Loki took parchment and a steel pen, which had been supplied to him by the head archivist, and wrote down a message. He was too young to be writing his memoirs anyway. He took advantage of the water-proof supplies, whispered its destination, put a shape-shifting spell with fifteen-minute delay on it and released it on the small stream that continued downwards from the bars of the cell. Hopefully, the water would wash his spell signature and take it a sufficient distance away that when the spell activated, it would confuse the sentinels into thinking that it was just butterfly, fluttering away.

When no sound could be heard after an hours’ time, Loki relaxed. His little stratagem had worked and was now waiting for the inevitable response. A slight quirk of his lips was all the emotion the trickster permitted onto his face. Somewhere, a certain Enchantress was reading his missive: “I know what you desire and I know how to arrange it so that the little obstacle in your way disappears. Find me.”

*

POV: Amora

Amora found herself atop a shape-shifted dragon Skurge hovering outside the prison mountain cloaked in an invisibility spell. As she reached Loki’s cell, he turned around and smirked.

“Amora, clever little cluster of spells.” His smirk widened. “Have you told dear old Skurge that he would not retain any Aesir characteristics? Like say, basic comprehension?”

She had not and he knew why. The trick when dealing with two lovers was keeping them separate, something that Loki knew very well or he would not have tried so hard in the past to keep her away from Thor.

“He knows everything I do.” She answered like a good, respectable woman of Asgard.

“Oh, I am quite certain he knows it all.  Still, like when entering a fog, I wonder how much he penetrates.”

Loki’s eyes glittered with amusement. That little – well, creature who fell off the Bifrost bridge. After he wanted to destroy a planet. No matter, so the decent lady of Asgard act would not worked on him, if the quip he just made about Skurge and herself was saying anything. Even so, he was in prison and he contacted her. Time to lay out the tarot cards.

“What do you want, Loki?” A pause. “What can you offer?” She asked doubtfully, looking at the prison walls.

Loki lifted an eyebrow.

“My proposal was written on the note and you accepted it, otherwise I would not have the pleasure of your visit. Why the posturing?” He stalked closer to the bars. “My apologies. I did not realize that I offended you so.” The corner of his lips quirked slightly while he reclined on the wall.

Amora took a second to rearrange her thoughts. She had given Loki enough weapons in this conversation. The God of Lies – so the first thing she did was to perform a spell on herself that would allow her to distinguish lies, which of course made the crease deepen in the bastard’s cheek. The second was to remember how she dealt with him before.

Loki was always a bit slippery, something that in her rush to get to him while finding a way around the multiple precautions in the prison, she seemed to have forgotten. He could talk circles around everybody, but even though he had spells in place to resist her glamour, she could always count on his desire to do mischief. 

The man that she used to know would gleefully go along with her plans, as long as they did not romantically include Thor, the prude, and watch the Aesir regard each other with suspicion, peer at shadows or jump at unexpected noises. This man struck her as being equally gleeful at watching the world burn. A little darker, a tad less to lose, but still in prison and that means no protection against her glamours. Time to even the field, she said to herself while raising her specialty spells.

“You said you know what I desire.” She purred and tried to make eye contact. “That you are willing to give it to me.” Loki’s eyes were losing their focus. “Is that a promise?” Amora strengthened her glamours. “Do you promise to give me that which I desire?”

She could not force him to look into her eyes, thus giving her spells a place to anchor, but he was weary, desperate, weakened mentally and there was a chance that this might work. The God of Mischief squinted his eyes. He opened his mouth and closed it. Took a deep breath. Grunted.

“Do you promise to do that which will give me the greatest pleasure?”

Loki’s eyes then widened and he turned his back to the Enchantress. “Almost, Amora. Almost, but not quite.”

His voice was calm but she could feel his fury just under the surface. Well, she had to try.

“You know what I desire. Thor.” Amora paused, waiting for an answered from Loki. When none was forthcoming, she continued. “There is an obstacle in my way. An obstacle that needs to cease existing.”

“The mortal Jane Foster.” Was all Loki said and he finally turned. Amora smiled.

“Do not keep grudges, darling. Though I love how your eyes just sparkle with fiery fury.”

“Although green fire does not sparkle half as prettily as the grey of storm clouds gathering, is that not so?” He answered in a flat voice provoking a laugh out of the Enchantress.

“As long as we agree on what you promise me.”

“Just what I wrote on the note.” nodded Loki.

“Though I have to ask: why now? Why would you defend him so ardently against my attentions in the past and now be so quick to practically sell him to me?”

“That sounds like you are hunting for rumors.” He announced with an edge to his voice which Amora took as a warning. After all it was not that surprising. The brothers clearly had a falling out, in Loki’s case literally, that ended with Thor as the victorious sibling. Who was she to begrudge the God of Mischief and Lies a little petty revenge? Especially since she could benefit from it?

“Now what can I do for you?” She all but battered her eyelashes.

“A small favor.” He said huskily and a small thrill went down Amora’s spine.

Too bad she was so invested in his brother, because she had an idea how to use that wickedness. Alas, she had thought and it was never worth it. Not the effort she had put into becoming a future queen, nor did she ever read true intention in him. Sigyn had taken care of that and just like now when his face lost the seductive sheen, she did not think he was capable of losing himself completely to desire anymore. Still, he did not have anything against the way she chose to live her life, with the exception of his brother and even that she had to admit that it had more to do with his concern that she was more astute than him, politically, so would reserve judgment. Barely.

“What kind of favor?”

“Oh, a small one. I want you to take a stroll through Idunn’s orchard, disguised as me, be careful to be seen by somebody, then take a few over to Midgard and drop them by the mortal Man of Iron’s apartment glamoured as normal apples.” He grinned, youthful and innocent.

Amora blinked and she blinked again when she saw how amused he was, like he could explode into a loud, happy laughter any minute. She absently thought that it looked good on him: lips curved into a smile, eyes shining with amusement that absolutely hid how insane he truly was.  

“Are you out of your mind?” She asked, shocked. “You cannot help me. You cannot help anybody. You are insane.”

Loki simply seemed to wait until she did anything else but show her outrage, to do anything. Amora shook her head and was getting ready to dig her heels in Skurge’s flanks when he finally spoke.

“For all intents and purposes, you are me so if caught just act deranged.” The stress that he put on the last word made her think that he did not appreciate having his sanity questioned. Oh, well. “And if not you might actually get what was promised. Nothing to lose.”

“How am I supposed to reach Midgard? Or that mortal’s home? Transporter spells are your specialty. “

“First, your promise that it is going to get done.” He insisted.

Amora thought about it for a bit. The God of Lies wanted Asgard on its head and she could be a part of that, with none of the consequences. Possibly even gain something. So as far as she was concerned all was good.

“For my part, I promise. Now for your part.”

Loki reached under his shirt and pulled out an emerald tear pendant which he threw at Amora.

“A gateway, good for a return trip taking you straight to the mortal’s home. Just say the word.”

“What –“

“The pass word is literally ‘the word’.” He interrupted and she rolled his eyes, because of course it was. Although, she had another thought.

“Why would you have a portal to a mortal’s home?”

Loki just smiled serenely. “That is all.”

The Enchantress smirked.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Alexandra! For being a wonderful beta and for putting up with my hysterics. All remaining mistakes are mine and I take full responsibility for them. Feel free to point them out.  
> Additional warnings: The science in this chapter is completely made up out of whatever I remember from my physics class in high school. I wasn't very good at it.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. 
> 
> Next update: Saturday.

Chapter 2

POV: Pepper

Pepper sighed. Usually, her crossing the office to reach the elevator was reason enough for the employees to mob her, but the expression on her face must’ve warned them off. It wasn’t even fair considering that they loved Tony, saw him as a god because he gave them a stable job, flexible schedule and enough money to keep anybody happy. Plus, the actual projects he brought to R&D to mass produce, as if he was just another engineer. All he asked in return was creativity and confidentiality. Sure, SI had their share of disgruntled employees, but it was comparatively less than any other company.

Still, today, like the last few months, when it came to visiting Tony, she needed an uncomfortable amount of courage. Courage she hadn’t managed to gather until now. It was bad for the company, seeing their CFO and CEO arguing, after being such a great team for a while. It was worse for their stock prices, all they needed was for somebody to confirm the press’ opinion that Tony cheated on her and that they weren’t getting along. So, she put on her determined face assuring safe passage toward the elevator.

Like always, she tried to remember the good times in the relationship. Of course, she ended up recalling the opposite. For example, she was thankful to him for tinkering with the Extremis, which was also kind of disturbing since he managed to stabilize it in only a month or so, when Maya Hansen struggled with it for approximately fifteen years, but she was honestly grateful. Although when the time came to heal her or just neutralize the virus, they had a small argument.

“Don’t you trust me?” She could still hear the betrayal in his voice. “Don’t you know that I would never let anything hurt you? That I would take out any side effects?”

Tony got closer provoking Pepper into taking a step back, so he stopped. Raised his hands as if to show he comes in peace. Then took a deep breath and continued.

“But it can help. It could give you strength, healing and you can get as mad at me, or anyone else, as you want. Without blowing up!” He grinned, which she found incredibly charming, even considering the subject, and went on. “It can help. If I can’t reach you… If I can’t help you and you can’t help yourself, it can help.” He urged her.

Tony looked like a kicked puppy. It broke her heart that he made this about trust. Even more so that he made the point of keeping her safe, when he almost died every few months. Actually, scratch that, she was pissed off.

“It’s not about trust, Tony. Of course I trust you.” She smiled. “I don’t care about being safe.” He opened his mouth, but Pepper talked over whatever he might say. “What I do care about is me. I care about my body, which I’ve had all my life and the fact that I want my body to feel like _my_ body. I’m sorry, but concerning that, you don’t get an opinion. I don’t want to glow orange or to grow limbs or to have strength that I simply do not possess. I don’t want to feel like a stranger in my own bones. No modifications.”

Tony, dear Tony just smiled. He looked at her, eyes full of love, though some lust might have snuck in there.

“You are perfect as you are.” He sounded as if he was quoting someone. “No modifications, understood.”

Okay, his last remark still made her smile. Pepper stepped in the elevator, pushed the button for Tony’s workshop, had her retina scanned, keyed in the pass code and felt her mood drop as the blinking numbers started to climb.

He did, after all, use what he had learned about Extremis to his advantage. Tony recoded the virus to replace the strength with an admittedly odd connection to technology, which meant that he had now access to any kind of machine. He just loved to be able to communicate with Dummy and U. Tony did keep the healing part of the code, which allowed him to get out his arc reactor, something Rhodey and she were grateful for. Unfortunately, that meant that there was still a problem with the temperature of his body when he was losing his temper, but he did manage to avoid the exploding aspect of that problem.

They both agreed it was better to keep it a secret, especially with how Jarvis discovered it had no effect against diseases, like cancer or AIDS. The only application it did have, to regrow limbs or to heal flesh wounds, was too likely to be used as a weapon. Personally, she didn’t even want to consider how much damage two armies with near indestructible soldiers could do. It still saddened her, how much loss of life they could prevent, though, she supposed, that could be an invitation to build even stronger weapons. And that was one thing the world could do without, a good reason to build even stronger weapons.

That prompted Tony into a flurry of activity making body armor and other such protective gear, that the military just ate up, even though it wasn’t weapons. He did make weapons for his fellow Avengers, but she could understand him wanting to protect the people he cared about. What she couldn’t understand, at first, was the fact that he started to build the suits again. He kept reassuring her that he was alright, that he wasn’t building because he had to anymore, he’s building them because he wanted to.

It was explained to her that he had made many mistakes, many mistakes and that he has to make up for them. She remembered how the old he had looked then: his voice ridiculously somber, his face blank. Pepper felt honored that he could express his feelings around her, without the pretense of humor, but, at the same time, she felt like an outsider. She couldn’t understand that level of pain and she certainly couldn’t fathom that level of guilt.

Once, she went to visit him in his workshop, only this time she asked Jarvis to let her announce herself. He agreed, but also turned down the music so that Tony would realize that she was standing there. She rolled her eyes, trust Tony to build an AI to spot and use a loophole. Though, she supposed, it was only fair as Jarvis’ loyalty would always be with his sir. Anyway, she took the opportunity to just observe him. It was always nice to see a genius at work and in his case it meant a strange dance of working, bickering, with all sorts of holograms flying around and heavy duty equipment, but now she saw something else.

It was probably always there, since he got back from Afghanistan, a kind of determination, a sobriety that seemed to linger, but mostly a focus that was always there. That focus didn’t refer to anything in his daily life as he hadn’t realized yet that she was standing there.

“Pepper?!”

Ah, finally.

Over the next few days, she saw that focus under all his expressions, more or less under the surface. She was certain that it hadn’t been there before. It was like he had forged himself a new view of the world in that cave. Then, she got it. He had forged something in that cave; he forged Iron Man. It was everybody else that was mistaken, because they foolishly thought that meant the armor. But, Tony always said that that he was IronMan. She, along with everybody else just didn’t understand what that meant. And, they also assumed it was more to that do with his ego, than anything else. Joke’s on them.

Only, now that she had finally seen it, she couldn’t unsee it. When he had a press conference or was working, she noticed varying degrees of it. She sometimes wondered if that look was on his face when he was poisoned slowly by palladium or when he flew that nuke into the portal. And she was better as a sister than a girlfriend anyway. Because this was what she had to do. She had to be there for him when one of his experiments was about to go overboard and she couldn’t be when they were in a relationship, considering she missed him building about thirty suits. Or having anxiety attacks. That had thankfully stopped.

Telling him hadn’t been easy. In retrospect she might have used more words, but she was losing a person she loved too. It was nobody’s fault, really, just the way things were. Still, when the time came and he asked, hurt:

“Why are you leaving me, this, us?”

She could only respond: “Because you are Iron Man and I finally understand what that means.”

Maybe that wasn’t the best answer. The elevator’s door opened. She sighted and stepped off.

*

POV: Tony

Tony was messing around with some arrows. Well, he was working on some arrows for Hawkeye, but seeing as his mind was prone to wonder, it’s more like he’s distracting himself with work.

“Sir, you have a new message from Ms. Potts.”

Tony rolled his eyes. Then he heard the ice in Jarvis’ voice and grinned. He tried to smother his amusement, but his lips kept twitching.

“Give it up, sir.” Tony let out a cackle of laughter. “Ignore, Jay.”

“Very well, sir.”

Messages from Pepper had become a part of his new daily routine. Over the last nine weeks that was all the communication he had from her part. No visits, no calls, just text messages: “go to the press conference”, “don’t forget to eat” and “try to sleep”. Fuck her, mostly because he still loved her. Fuck her, because she was his only family and she just left him. He wasn’t saying that she needed to stay in a relationship with him, she was a saint for lasting this long, but she didn’t have to just give up. And fuck him, because he didn’t trust her anymore.

Tony hated that about himself. Despised the fact that he had this ‘fool me once’ policy. For example, Rhodey. He wanted Rhodey to have a suit, that’s why he deactivated the security around it. Still, the moment he decided that the army was right, the moment he thought that he thought that he woulddo a better job than the person who invented it, even though that person was a friend, he lost Tony’s trust. He offered maintenance work for the suit, which now that AIM was out of the picture, was kindly accepted, but he never gave it any new tech. Like all the suits he wasn’t keyed to. No matter how much he abhorred it he couldn’t make himself give it up. Actually, no, he just didn’t want to.

“Would you like me to buy you a rubber ducky for your bathroom, sir?”

“What?!”

“Oh good, you are back. I was merely entertaining myself until you stopped day dreaming.”

“Of course you were. Tell me, you wouldn’t happen to record these questions, would you?”

“The cameras in the workshop are for the purpose of security, sir.”

“Right.” Tony smirked. “And yes on the rubber ducky.”

 “Placing the order now.” Jarvis announced. He had no doubt that his AI ordered a good dozen or so. Smug bastard.

“Okay, let’s get to work people. So, we have to somehow put a net in an arrow. Without making the world’s biggest arrow head in the process.”

“If at all possible.” Jarvis dryly agreed.”I think you’d find that the polyester made for Hulk would do well considering the weight to strength ratio.”

“I thought that too, until I realized that the quantity necessary for making a decent seized net would take –“

“Approximately 25 grams.”

“Which is way too much to put in an arrow and expect someone to aim it.”

“Or to expect it to actually hit the target.”

“Thank you for that input, Jay. Wonderful as always.”

“Always glad to be of help, sir.”

Tony snapped his fingers. “What about a change in the state of aggregation?”

“A gas, again?”

“A liquid. How many grams would that take then?”

“3,5 grams.”

“Per –“

“Ms. Potts is coming, sir.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Let’s work on making it a liquid that hardens and expands when it comes in contact with oxygen.”

He barely finished when the elevator’s doors opened. Pepper was lovely as ever, even with eyes bright with fury. Maybe even more so, he thought as a dusting of pink appeared at the sight of his cheeky grin. The famous Pepper Potts temper, ladies and gentlemen. His grin may or may not have a maniacal edge to it.

“Tony, what are you doing?” She forced the words from between gritted teeth.

“Working.” He flapped a hand at the program from the transparent screen which was rolling options for changing the state of aggregation.

“You’re always working.” Pepper said with a calm she obviously did not feel.

“Yeah.” Tony smirked.

She took a deep breath. “Can we talk somewhere else?”

“Sure. Like where?”

“The penthouse.” He felt his grin slipping, but managed to keep it there by habit. Tony just never expected to use that in conversation with Pepper. Then again, worse things had happened to him.

“You first.” They entered the elevator. “I feel like you are going to the take advantage of me. Making us go into a place with no furnishings, no real security, no rugs.” He put a hint in his smile. “Or Jarvis.”

The elevator’s door opened.

“Want a coffee? It’s fresh.”

Pepper rubbed at her forehead. “Yes, that’s why I suggested we spoke here.”

“Because the coffee’s fresh?”

She gave him a look.

“Because there are no cameras here, no microphones and no Jarvis.”

“Jarvis is always with me now, Pepper. Keep up.” He pointed to the coffee machine which started suddenly. Her eyes widened.

“I forgot.”

Tony just grabbed an apple from a platter. He was used to Jarvis stocking his fridge, but didn’t usually go for apples.

“I didn’t order any, sir.” Jarvis denied.

He frowned. Then he thought that it must’ve been Pepper. Who else would have access to the penthouse?

“Why haven’t you returned to the mansion?”

Oh, sure, right. The Avengers mansion where everybody had pity in their eyes. When they started with the kind gestures, he left. Even though he had an actual bed there, it became just another house that he paid for and never lived in. For just a short period of time. A little over two months. Well.

“I was making new toys, didn’t want them to take a peak.” He took a big bite out of the apple. The most amazing taste simply exploded in his mouth. Man, it must have been a long time since he had last eaten.

“Thirty-three hours, sir.”

Yeah, that’ll do it.

“ – go back?”

“Hm?”

Pepper pursed her lips. He took another bite.

“I said, then you are ready to go back.” She challenged.

“As soon as the computer finishes rendering and I actually assemble the toy. Three or four hours, at most.” He continued to munch happily and took a cup of coffee from the machine.

“Listen.” Pepper started as Tony bit into another apple. That was her ‘this subject is important’ voice. “I handled the whole break up thing wrong. I understand that now. Still, that does not mean that you have to distance yourself from your friends.”

“Now that you know that I didn’t distance myself from my friends, your point is moot.” A pause. “Whatever that might be.” He smiled.

“Good.” Pepper said. Her own smile was rather thin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you my delightful beta, Alexandra! All the mistakes are mine and I'd very thankful if point them out to me.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except perhaps the plot.  
> Note: I have tried long and hard to find out what exactly is Natasha's name and I finally went with Romanoff, the way is spelled by IMDB, and, since I'm following the movies, that's what I thought was best. Additional note, all science and magic talk are researched, but by an unknowledgeable person, not by an expert. 
> 
> Update: Wednesday.

Chapter 3

POV: Jarvis

 

“Jay, call all the Avengers to the training room.” Mr. Stark said upon entering the mansion. Carefully, he made his way through the halls. Before reaching it, though, Jarvis registered Capt. Rogers jogging toward him from the direction of the gym.

“Capt. Rogers please slow down. Sir is currently handling pieces of equipment worth several hundred thousand dollars and are, in fact, one of a kind.” 

He stopped rather abruptly.

“Several hundred thousand dollars?!”

Jarvis was pleased to see him continue at a more sedated place.

“Yes.”

He narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, but no more information was forthcoming. Meanwhile, sir entered the training room. “If you want more information, I suggest you proceed as per Mr. Stark’s wishes.”

Capt. Rogers rolled his eyes.

“You just don’t want to steal his thunder.”

The door opened. He remained staring at where he guessed the cameras where. Well, good luck to him, the A.I. had all the time in the world.

“Steve, why are you staring at the ceiling?” Sir’s head had appeared in the open doorway.

“Uh, I thought I saw a bug.”

He sensed Mr. Stark’s amusement at the situation as it was explained to him by Jarvis, but considering that nobody, Avengers included, knew about the fact that he could communicate with technology, he had to hide it.

“A bug, huh?” Of course, he was not the most subtle person on most occasions.

“Yup. Big bug, lots of legs.” Glances were exchanged between the men and one smirked while the other smiled sheepishly. The ex-soldier looked around.

“More of your toys? Tell me this isn’t a goodbye present.”

“A goodbye – what?”

“Well, I thought that since you kind of moved out, you were here to tell us you were quitting the team.”

Sir was shocked.

“No, I’m not leaving the team. Just didn’t want you to see the new toys.” Atthe Captain’s raised eyebrow, he went on. “And after Pepper… left, I needed some time. Alone. Working.”

While Jarvis knew what was going on in the engineer’s head, he had no idea what the other man was thinking so he could only watch at the silence stretched between them.

“You know, Pepper is very smart.” The ex-soldier begins. “Very capable.” Jay felt his sir agreeing. “Her humor is very dry and witty.” Agreement again this time with a nod. “Very strong.”   A frown on Mr. Stark’s face. “Very beautiful.” This time sir glanced at Capt. Rogers with a suspicious air. “Very nearly fearless.” An eyebrow climbed in a disbelieving fashion. The speaker looked at the engineer and realized he must quickly reach his point because he was most definitely losing his audience to anger derived from jealousy.

“Almost perfect, clearly unique.” He rushed through the words. His voice might have achieved a squeaky quality towards the end. “But so are you!”

Now sir was confused.The veteran took a deep breath.

“I’m not good this at this at all. Look, Tony, here’s how I see it. She is complicated and beautiful, like a puzzle piece. You are also like a puzzle piece.”

“Complicated and beautiful?”

Capt. Rogers ignored his blush.He bravely went on. “But though those puzzle pieces looked like they fitted together at first, too much has changed in the meantime.”

“So you’re saying that both of us, or just me, have changed and now we don’t fit together anymore.”

“Both, yes.”

“Where do you think he’s getting all this, Jay?”

“Sgt. Barnes was by all accounts your definition of a playboy, sir.”

Mr. Stark’s smile acquired a touch of sadness.

“A nugget of knowledge from dealing with Sgt. Barnes?”

That startled a laugh out of Capt. Rogers. It didn’t even sound bitter. The A.I. guessed that it had something to do with the simple, almost abrasive honesty the engineer seemed to possess. That made him so endearing to Jarvis, Dr. Banner and everyone else who wasn’t hiding from the truth. Of course, there weren’t many characteristics that his sir could have to make Jarvis stop caring for him. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate him.

“Yes, that was the line I told Bucky every time. He didn’t even realize that it was the same one. What about you? Is it working with you?”

“Yeah. It also has the advantage of not making it my fault. And it got Captain America to call me beautiful.” He leered at the ex-soldier.

“Why is everyone saying that you cheated on her?”

“How do you know I didn’t?”

“Natasha says that you didn’t because we would have heard of a long stay in the hospital.”

Mr. Stark made an interrogatory sort of noise, at which point Capt. Rogers glanced pointedly at his crotch.The engineer opened his mouth, horrified and the veteran made eye contact. After a few seconds, they both burst out laughing.

“That she would. As for why everybody says that, it’s the disadvantage of free press.”

“Obviously, it means nothing that they latched onto you and not Pepper.” Ms. Romanoff said as she was entering, along with Mr. Barton, the training room. Sir smirked.

“Obviously.” He waved his hand in a dismissive movement. “As long as the stock prices don’t drop, they won’t, the press has a villain, a story and I don’t care. It’s pretty perfect. Is that whiskey I see?”

Ms. Romanoff nodded while and Mr. Barton lifted several glasses with a wiggle of his eyebrows just as Dr. Banner entered. The doctor groaned.

“I told you all he isn’t leaving. Look he brought new toys. Now, quick, hide the booze.” He said with a smile.

“Aren’t you a bunch of gossiping old ladies?”

“Who are you calling old?” The archer laughed while pouring the drinks. “What do you have for me?”

“Thank you.” Sir said while receiving his glass. “See for yourself.”

Mr. Barton went to the arrows, took and aimed at the target, meanwhile saying: “These better not have the superpower of blowing up in my face.” He released it. The arrow performed as expected.

“Huh. Was not expecting that.” He remarked.

“How was it? Too heavy?”

The archer considered the question seriously. “A bit, but I can work around that.”

“You needed several arrows that are for capture anyway.” Ms. Romanoff pointed out.

“And these are a lot better than anything S.H.I.E.L.D. R&D can come up with, I can tell you that. Oh, I love it when you come up with new toys. May you be forever on our side.” He toasted.

“Who’s next?” Sir inquired.

“Me, I guess.” Capt. Rogers replied.

“Here you are.” Mr. Stark presented what seemed to be a pen with a flourish.

“Thanks.” The ex-soldier said, confused. Dr. Banner gave a soundless laugh while the assassin hid her grin in the glass.

“You will notice that it has a button, like any pen, only this one doesn’t jam once the pen is engaged. The sequence you will need to tap is three short, three long, three short.”

“SOS?” wondered Ms. Romanoff, amused.

“I would’ve put America, but that has too many taps. Not to mention it’s a bother to remember.” Sir responded wryly. Capt. Rogers waited until the banter stopped, then pressed the button. Jarvis timed the sequence and announced it to Mr. Stark as asked. It was under two seconds, so suitable for their goal. The pen unfurled clockwise to form a shield, with a metal hold.

“It’s big enough to cover his forearm. Good job, Jay!” Sir communicates mentally.

“Thank you, sir.”

“It’s not as strong as your other shield. Still, it’s pretty strong.”

“And portable.” The veteran threw it across the room. “Light, too.”

“Glad you like it.”

“I love it, thank you.”

The engineer nodded. Dr. Banner was frowning at a couple dozen or so pairs of socks.

“Who are these for?” He asked with apprehension.

“You,” Mr. Stark answered with a bit more enthusiasm than strictly necessary.

“Socks. Why did you have to create socks?” Came the vexed reply from the doctor.

“That’s what you ask?” The archer demanded.

“What else am I supposed to ask?”

Capt. Rogers answered dryly. “Why socks?”

“Actually, Bruce’s question was better.” Sir revealed. “These socks are more like slippers. Very strong, durable and they expand like the suit. They become useful after a hulk-outso that you don’t step on debris or, if you do, to have some protection. Of course, the Other Guy might be a touch less angry if he didn’t tap dance in glass.”

Silence reigned in the room.

“Yes, I am a genius.”

The doctor snorted. “Thank you, Tony.”

Ms. Romanoff poured herself another drink and wondered out loud. “I wonder what that says, for it to have occurred to you.”

“It says that I want to have Captain Apple Pie unconscious in my workshop.”Sir tossed the gloves toward the spy, who caught them neatly in one hand without spilling a drop.

“That’s what that was for!” The aforementioned Captain exclaimed.

Mr. Barton looked at him disapprovingly.

“They are of a higher voltage than the last ones and they have these tiny capsules that contain a paralytic gas. Knocked Cap out for about two hours.”

“How do they work?”

“You rotate the fist slowly, activate the timer by tightening your fist, thirty seconds, and then launch. Ten of them in each glove.”  

“Do I have to clear the area?”

“No, just hold your breath when you’re preparing to throw. It only has a second of potency, but it is pretty aggressive.”

Ms. Romanoff raised an eyebrow. “Thank you.”

Jarvis could feel the warmth that sir felt towards these people, people he joked with and bantered with. People who were willing to drink with him when he was upset about a break up. And he felt himself hoping, along with his creator, that they wouldn’t betray his trust.

*

POV: Clint

Clint was sitting at a table, in a helicarrier, watching Thor as he paced about the room, that fucking cube hanging from his hand.

“Idunn’s apples have been stolen!”

When there was no reaction to that statement, the God of Thunder, apparently reached the conclusion that he needed to explain himself. Thank fuck.

“Idunn’s apples are what give us long life. They are rejuvenating. We have to eat them from time to time, to maintain our long life, but it is forbidden to give them to mortals. You would recognize them by their golden skin.”

“Golden apples? Really? Out of everything, are you telling me that golden apples exist?” Banner demanded.

Clint wanted to know where the doctor got his information, and directed a questioning look at him.

“I actually thought I’d do some reading on Norse Myths considering the fact that we found out that they actually exist.”He gestured empathically toward Thor.

“I still don’t see how that concerns us.” Cap said.

“The only reason for stealing the apples would be to give them to mortals, ergo the blond menace visiting us.”

Stark didn’t even look up from his transparent tablet, but still managed to make a splash. All eyes turned to the God of Thunder.

“Yes, that is true Man of Iron. What is even more worrying is that a sentinel reported to have seen Loki in Idunn’s orchard.”

That got Stark’s attention.

“Though I know that to be impossible, because my brother is imprisoned.” Thor explained.  

“I don’t think that would stop Loki.” Said Cap in a gentle voice.

Coulson was, as always, practical. “What’s the plan now?”

“We have to find them. Some apples were consumed, as Idunn felt them being eaten by a mortal, but we have to find the rest before any more humans acquire them. Naturally, then I shall have to present the problem to Odin All-Father.”

“Where do we start?” Tasha asked.

“I think it is most probable that he latched on to one of you, since there were few mortals he had contact to that were not controlled.” 

Clint felt a bitter taste in his mouth, controlled seemed such a clean word when spoken by Thor, but it felt a little different, to say the least.

“What do you mean by latched on?” challenged Banner.

“Well, several centuries ago, there was agod that did the same thing for somebody they loved. That, unfortunately, did not end well.”

There was something somber about the usually happy man before them, a warning not ask more questions.

“What happened to them?”

Fury, of course, took that as his own personal invitation to ask more on the subject.

“They did not make it. There has not been a mortal addition to Asgard in almost two thousand years.”

“You think that Loki was motivated by love?” He always liked the way Tasha’s deadpan tone managed to convey her incredulity so well, without her adding any an unnecessary inflexion.

“Why else?”

“It sounds more like an assassination plot.” Clint said.

“Why wouldn’t he just come on Earth, kill anybody he wanted to and then leave again with none the wiser? Why take a detour via the golden apples?” remarked Banner.

“Still, we’re saying that Loki, what? Fell in love?” Tasha pronounced the words like they were filthy.

“Come on, guys. It’s obviously something more here.” Stark said, exasperated.

“Where do you get that he is so complicated? I mean, sure he had a plan, that Natasha managed to find out, but it happened anyway. Most bad guys’ plans when they do come true, though, it actually does something for them. They gain some kind of advantage from it, his didn’t benefit him at all. We won, anyway.” Cap was really getting worked up, but nothing would convince Stark.

“I talked to the guy. I really think that’s he’s capable of more. He’s more intelligent than that.”

“Then why wasn’t he?” Cap insisted.

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong about him. I was right the first time, wasn’t I?”

Clint’s first struck the table. “Really? We’re trying to figure out Loki’s plans? What happened to his brain being a bag of cats? Let’s just find the damn apples.”

Stark opened his mouth but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder from Banner.

*

They searched the Avengers mansion, while Stark and Banner argued in whispers.

“I’m telling you, it’s a plan!”

“There’s just not enough information to extrapolate that sort of thing.”

Clint shook his head at them and continued searching. Tasha stopped. The archer lifted an eyebrow, knowing that Natasha must’ve had a reason for pausing her search.

“What about you?” she asks.

The two geniuses stopped talking.

“What about StarkTower?” Tasha repeated.

“That’s bullshit. And you know it.”

“I don’t know it. That’s why I’m suggesting it. You spent two months there, came back just yesterday.”

Stark clenched his jaw.

*

There didn’t find anything in the workshop, but there they were on a platter, in his penthouse. Stark’s eyes were wide and Banner steps closer to him.

“They weren’t like that before. They were just regular apples.”

“My brother is a sorcerer, but why disguise them?”

“To fool Tony into eating them.” Banner jumped in Stark’s defense.

“You already said that it would be too much trouble.” Was pointed out by Tasha.

The doctor got a little green eyed, which prompted Clint to step between the two. Thankfully, Stark saw it too and continued with his story.

“They were in my house and I was hungry so I ate them.”

“How many, Stark?”

The engineer angrily responded to Fury: “Two.”

“That is correct.” Thor said.

“Why would I just leave them here, if I knew what I was eating?”

“You didn’t know we were going to come here. We only did, because I suggested it.”

A shiver of distrust made itself known to Clint.

“I have footage of me, all this time, in the workshop.”

“But not when eating the apples?” Fury challenged.

 “No, there aren’t any cameras here. We replaced the glass and repaired the hole in the floor, then left it until the building crews were had a little more time. It just didn’t seem all that important when I had somewhere else to live, while other people lost their homes. So, after we moved back to New York, we had some people put the finishing touches, but didn’t get around to handle the furnishings and the security.”

It always surprised Clint when Stark acted like a human being. Still, he guessed he had to resemble Iron Man at least a bit.

 “So, no footage.” Of course, the director didn’t see it that way. “And, anyway, you could’ve hacked all that.”

“The timing wouldn’t have fit!”

“I’ve seen you at a computer, Stark.”

Actually, this was going pretty fast to hell in a basket. The archer looked around to see where Cap was. If there was a time when a team leader was needed, this was it. He found him, next to the wall, looking lost. He bet he knew what was going thorough his head, because it was the same thing that he was thinking. On the one hand, Stark was a teammate, on the other he somehow managed to distract Loki without his armor and offered him a drink. Also, if they didn’t disregard this whole love angle, Stark was the only one crazy enough to start something with the God of Mischief.

“You have got to be kept under supervision!” The director thundered. Which would have been funny considering the fact that they had the God of Thunder right there, but wasn’t because Fury meant ‘arrest’. And it was the ‘for an indefinite time’ type.  

“No.”

Clint looked at the doctor, then between Banner and Tasha, who had already rotated her hand. No, Tasha. He had to pick a side so he moved next to her, where he always would be, and held his breath. Not even three steps away, Stark and Banner stood, together.  On the other side of the room were Thor, who looked confused, Fury, who looked angry and Steve, who looked lost.

Natasha tightened her fist, waited twenty eight seconds, then launched the capsule. The two geniuses weren’t expecting it. The betrayal in Stark’s eyes was clear even as the Other Guy made his appearance known and tried to protect him from the gas. But, as with every thing the engineer made, it worked as promised, and the gas was very aggressive. Almost immediately, they were knocked unconscious. Twenty minutes later, when the Other Guy woke up, Stark was already arrested and gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, my wonderful beta Alexandra! All the mistakes are mine and I would love it if you could point them out to me. As always, the science is imagined based on research.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the places. 
> 
> Next update: Sunday.

Chapter 4

POV: Thor

Thor presented his father the remaining apples.

“They were in the possession of the mortal Man of Iron, though he seemed to have been tricked into eating them.”

“I believe that the mortals would say anything not to receive punishment, once discovered.”

“Father, you are much mistaken about this mortal.” Thor tried.

“I decide when I am in the wrong, not you. Now, “ Odin said to the guards “bring me my treasonous son.”

Mother stiffened at his way of addressing Loki and Thor felt the same. Though, he had still named his little brother son. The God of Lies was brought to the throne room, muzzle in place.

“Loki Lie-smith, what have you to say for yourself?”

His father pronounced. When nothing was forthcoming, Frigga leaned a bit towards him, then whispered.

“Perhaps you should remove the gag?”

Thor could only now see how upset his father was. He would have never inquired something without assuring that the other person was able to answer. Odin was obviously having great difficulty keeping calm and the God of Thunder felt a deep, abiding sadness at that. Then again, he also felt anger towards him, how could he be upset at Loki’s reaction which, though extreme, was only due to missteps his parents have made towards concealing his true identity?

“Answer me.”

A sly smile appeared on his brother’s face.

“Thanos is coming. He is after the Tesseract.”

The shock Thor felt at the pronouncement was paralyzing. If that was true, and it was not impossible for Loki to say falsehoods, it was a decidedly bad revelation. To say the least.

“You are lying yet again. As you have so many times. Are you truly incapable of telling the truth?”

“On the contrary, All-father, I am telling the truth now. And I would have told it from the first, where you in a disposition to let me talk. Or better yet, to listen.”

“Which first was that? First time you returned from Midgard or the first time you made moves to destroy your brother’s crowing day?”

“Either would have been fine.”

Odin was seething. Thor had to admit that his brother did know how to strike where it was most vulnerable. Nor did the trickster have only one target with his remark. He was embarrassed for his behavior that day, but he probably should have been ashamed of it long before his coronation. How was it, he wondered, that only Loki saw him as he truly was? And what did his brother see?

Though to be sure, he could have chosen another way to show his discontent. But, who was he to begrudge his brother his convoluted plans, when he had his own more terrible ways to go about achieving his goals?

“Do you love him, that mortal?”

Loki sneers.

“Yes, because last time that went so well. What happened to the poor man? Ah, you took his heart. Literally put your hand through his chest and reaped it. I do so love it when you are poetic.”

Thor grimaced. That was nasty.

“That is not a denial.”

“I thought it unnecessary.”

“Still not a denial.”

A moment of contemplation.

“The reason I tricked the Man of Iron into eating the apples was to converse to you.”

“You did all of it just to talk?” Thor asked, offended on Anthony Stark’s part.

“What is the perfect way to ensure that you will be allowed to talk?”

“To be asked a question.” Mother said with trepidation.

“Precisely so.” The God of Thunder went cold at Loki’s smile. It was insanity, pure insanity.

“Are you mad?”

The trickster spared him a glace.

“Thanos is searching about for the Tesseract. Probably wants it to wreak some more havoc in the name of his sweetheart.” Loki hid a shudder, but Thor was his older sibling, he could not hide from him. And the thought of the Mad Titan’s lady love was disturbing for anyone. “He will manage to retrieve it. We all know it, there is no doubt about that. Nevertheless, he will come by way of Midgard. That would be an excellent place to have whatever fight we would want to put.” Then, as if just realizing something. “I suppose I should say instead whatever plan you manage to concoct. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I cannot imagine myself having any part in that, not in any role that does not feature me as bait.”

While Thor was readying his questions in order of importance, with which he was having somewhat of a hard time since he did not know what should acquire the most consequence, his father spoke:

“What evidence do you have on this matter?”

“My memories, of course.”

“Your fabricated memories?”

Mother interrupted.

“I can forge a truth spell that would make it impossible for him to contrive any disinformation on what he chooses to present us.”

“Why not anchor it on him?” Thor wondered.

“Beloved, he is named the God of Lies for a reason.”

Loki smirked. Suddenly, he remembered that he had reason not to like him too much.

“Go forth then.” Odin declared.

His brother devised a spell that would project his memories on a grey screen of smoke, over which Frigga threw her truth charm.

Torture. His brother was tortured. With heat.

Thor almost missed Thanos or the fact that presently Loki had just told the truth, because the God of Thunder was furious. He even caught Odin give the trickster a worried look while his mother just raised her chin and her back straightened almost imperceptibly. Storm clouds gathered on the sky of Asgard. The nerve that someone would have to torture Loki, to torture his brother! Even a foe such as the Mad Titan must not allowed that.

“Do quiet your anger, Thor. You do not want to strike any unfortunate Asgardian citizen with your lightning. What is more, I still attacked Midgard with all my conviction. I do not need your pity and, given the fact that my invasion did much damage to a place you supposedly protect, I would encourage you not to dislodge your outrage with me.”

He wondered what it said about him, that Loki’s words made him smile. His mother had, perhaps, the same sickness, because he could swear her lips curved.

“I see now that you are telling the truth. The fact that he detours to Midgard may be advantageous.”

“Hm.” was all Loki said. Thanos only deviated to Midgard on account of them having superb warriors that he would perceive as more of a challenge. Still, to hold any kind of battle on a plane of mortals is cruel. The loss of life would be immense even if they were to win.

“Father, it is dangerous to fight with such a foe on a mortal plane.”

“Dangerous, yes, very much so, but better still than having him here.”

It shook Thor to the core to see who he used to perceive as man whose virtuousness was the standard by which he compared his decision making, was now basing a judgment only on his interest. Odin was composing the only plan that could possibly guarantee success, as he saw it, but the God of Thunder rather thought that it could not be the only way. And where did he go when he usually needed a planner? Loki.

It seemed that his mother had a similar thought.

“Perhaps we should let our sons arrange things on Midgard – provide what they can in the way of delaying the inevitable – and we organize our defenses here.”

Thor was afraid that his brother would interrupt Frigga at the mention of their relation, but the trickster remained silent. He regarded him with a small measure of astonishment and Loki… winked at him. Feeling quite out of balance, the older brother turned his attention to their parents slowly, so he did not fail to notice the laughter his sibling suppressed.

“In return for his service, he shall be released. For now, in a probationary manner, and, if he survives,” her voice acquired a small tremble “his freedom shall be, once again, assured. After all, his incursion to Midgard was not his scheme, it was done at the forcible suggestion of another. Concerning the event that culminated in the destruction of the Bifrost, there were extenuating circumstances, I think you shall agree.”

The God of Thunder did not and he could see Odin sharing his reluctance, but there was a glint of something in Frigga’s blue eyes. Something like a wild beast protecting her cubs, something like a mother who had just seen her son tortured and nothing would be permitted to do him more harm. So, in the face of that something, they both opted to hold their commentaries on the matter.

Loki just looked at her, his eyes uncharacteristically warm.

“The mortal shall have to pass his challenges in a years’ time.”

 The trickster just nodded, but Thor was not so at peace with the proceedings.

“What if he fails them?”

“Then he shall die.”

Thor glanced at his brother and did not see any movement to mirror his shock, not even to reveal his surprise. Neither did a glimpse at his mother. Perchance they were not overwhelmed by bewilderment, because they knew his father as he did not.

“Father, he did not know!”

“Mayhap. Nevertheless, he still ate them.”

 That had the power to quiet him as few things did.

“What is your first plan, Loki Lie-smith?”

“You shall see it when it comes to pass, Odin All-Father.”

His father seethed. Thor did not find it in him to care.

*

Frigga brought them on the helicarrier with the Tesseract and she was to return with the power source to Asgard. If they needed it, they shall have to communicate through Heimdall.

“May you have the best of luck.”

With a last, yearning glance, his mother disappeared. Thor turned, troubled by his father’s behavior, only to meet his brother’s green gaze.

“Who knew all it would take for you to see the true face of Odin was to threaten one of your precious Midgardians? You get too attached to those who are around you.”

“Like I did you?”

“Have I not proven it time and time again?”

“No, brother. You have not.”

Loki opened his mouth, presumably to deny the name, but then he stopped. The trickster seemed to regard Thor carefully. And he smiled. Dark, with an edge to it.

“Worry not about the Man of Iron. He will not fail.”

He said it with such certainty, as if nothing could be more obvious.

“How do you know?”

Loki smirked, again with the edge to it and Thor realizes it is a plan. Just another of his brothers plans. Of course, that alone does not guarantee it would work, but it does assure that he is not completely insane. Changed – absolutely – nevertheless, not altogether lost.

“He will not fail.” The God of Mischief repeats himself and turns towards the multiple men with weapons who were trying to surround them.

*

POV: Natasha

Five hours had passed. Each minute more filled with tension then the last. It was going to explode any moment now.

Banner was sitting at the table, opposite her. He was calm. Apparently. Of course, it was only with Steve’s input that the mild doctor was back. The second capsule lasted for 10 minutes.  The third one lasted for 5 minutes. Just as she was realizing how ugly it could all turn out, Cap got him to listen. He told the doctor that there was nothing they could do for Stark until Thor came back. So, he sat. His eyes were green.

In other news, Natasha just lost three capsules from a grand total of twenty. Because she was not getting any more, that was for sure. Obviously, they did not vanish alone. They went along with the trust of the engineer. A man who was understandably sensitive to having his weapons turned on him, and she used exactly those weapons to capture him. Put him in a cell.

She was not sorry for having done that. It was a situation which needed defusing. What she was sad about, was the team which would now be irrevocably broken. It felt, for a short time, like she belonged. Like they all belonged. But she didn’t have a choice and didn’t mourn for one. Stark was certainly not going to take it too gently and if the director was right, if he did work with Loki, she had just pissed him off. Even if he wasn’t, she had pushed all kinds of buttons. The last time that happened it didn’t end too well for the person doing the pushing. However, that was neither here, nor there, since whatever revenge he had thought up was going to have to wait until he was let go.

Fury had asked for the capsules in order to have his R&D department test them. Coulson almost smiled from where he standing silent. As always **,** he was seeing everybody and nobody saw him. Evidently he found their little exchange amusing **,** or just Fury’s delusional notions.  Either way, the director continued to say that the department will try to keep it under wraps. The almost smile, again. That settled it on the unrealistic ideas considering it was a bother on a good day to hide something from Jarvis. As for her, she was pretty certain that they wouldn’t discover a way to reproduce it, or the mechanics of the gloves, and she only had seventeen.

 “I can’t.” She said. Banner turned his head from the director to watch her. “The moment I touch them they activate.”

Everybody knew she was lying. All of them had other things to do, so they let it go. Fury, for one, had bigger fish to fry. He was trying to get Cap to recognize the danger Stark posed for all of them and that he needed to stay in a cell. Without inviting another appearance from the Other Guy.

Naturally, he did not seem to realize that Steve had not done anything to incur such an effort. He even calmed Banner down. It appeared that seventy odd years in the ice, had frozen the Cap’s impulse to think orders through. Like she knew for a fact what he had done when he chose to go after his friend. Being able to take orders was all well and good, though one could make the case that they took on problems that made regarding commands with a certain creativity a necessity, but what worried her was the change in personality, the obedience that didn’t use to be there.

“Wish you had known the man when he was building weapons.” The director was saying only to be drowned in Steve’s earnestness.

“He was naïve, he couldn’t have known that his company was –“

“What do you imagine he thought he did? You really think his thought process was: I’m gonna built this hugeass rocket and it will be used for killing squishy teddy bears, the fuckers?” That did offer a disturbing picture. “He built weapons. Which were going to be used on people, people who weren’t supposed to be ours, but they were humans too.”

 “On enemies. People who are evil, he was protecting our country.”

He was also pissing off Clint, who wasn’t in the best state of mind from the get go, since this was about Loki, but also, since he felt some regret for the loss of the team. Now, with Cap waxing poetic about things that are black and white, when almost everything they did was gray, his temper was shining through. She really hoped that Thor would return soon. Thankfully, Clint still had some level of control.

“There aren’t all the people like that, in two categories, good and evil. Most of us don’t have enemies like yours, Cap. We don’t have a Red Skull, someone so truly evil, he actually has a red skull. We have to make do with a combination between the two and make a decision by following orders or, rarely, our own decisions.”

Steve looked confused. Banner snorted and rolled his eyes.

What Clint was trying to say was that Stark did not have to be completely pure or innocent to justify defending, because most people were not. Generally, though, he was attempting to remind Cap that he needed to make his own decisions, considering what he knew about the person, the directives he received and a small measure of gut instinct.

Of course, all that managed to do is fly over the captain’s head. Even Coulson seemed to be disappointed. Fury seemed to finally catch on that all the explaining was unnecessary and was watching narrow-eyed.

Banner was still sitting at the table. His eyes were still green. He still looked prepared to obliterate the whole helicarrier. He didn’t do it because he was reasonably convinced that this was the best course of action. For now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of thanks to the amazing Alexandra, for agreeing to be my beta! All the mistakes are my own and I'd appreciate it if you could point them out to me. This chapter is posted sooner because I've got some traveling planned for tomorrow and I thought better earlier then later. The same warning as always for science and magic. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the locations or the characters.
> 
> Update: Wednesday.

Chapter 5

POV: Steve

Alarms suddenly went off, making Steve jump. Something was happening, but considering the fact that everyone else was pretty calm it was probably just Thor. And, sure enough, several minutes later, in walked the god.

With Loki.

Steve felt himself tense. But his readiness to fight was nothing next to Clint’s, who already had the bow armed and aimed towards the God of Mischief. Said alien was walking in the room without a care, surrounded by men with guns and his brother. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents took position by the wall with the computer thingies, he thought Tony had once called them servers. He insisted that they be in the room they all gathered regularly, something about how nobody would dare to enter it. Anyway, now the soldier was wondering what the men were doing there.

Were they defending them against the two gods – if so he thought the team could do a better job –, or were they defending the gods against them, in which case they weren’t doing a very good job. Clint looked ready to let loose the arrow.

Thankfully, the alarms stopped. Sure, that didn’t mean much for the situation, but it was hell of a lot easier on his ears. At a sign from somebody, if he had to guess he would say Agent Coulson, the men turned and left the room. Ah, they were the escort.

Loki looked ready to speak. Well, his funeral.

“I had hoped you would not still be upset with me, Mr. Barton.”

Or not. There was something settled about the god, which did not have the same response whatsoever in Steve. If he were to draw him now, he would use broad strokes and dark colors, like a lazy predator watching his prey. Indulgent. Until he snapped into the light and ate it.

“You fucker, you controlled me. What were you expecting me to do? Say it was all in good fun?”

“Ah now, the scepter had limited influence in order to persuade you that joining me would be in your best interest. The effect once banished, painful though it may be, it is gone forever. Or at least until the next time you encounter that form of mind guiding.” Loki cruelly smiled. “If you but ponder upon it, it worked towards your continued survival to be in this position.” He was watching Agent Coulson as he said the words.

“Still alive.” Then agent responded to the unasked question.

“Indeed you are. By the power of your conviction, I am sure.” The trickster seemed to be reciting some significant fragment. Clint’s jaw clenched.  Loki just gave a sly hint of a smile and continued, turning towards the sniper. “What is truly the matter?”

The archer only breathed deeply, under the gaze of the God of Lies. His arm didn’t falter for one second.

“Trust.”

Bruce furrowed his eyebrow. That was odd, he didn’t even seem to be listening to the conversation. Of course, he wasn’t anywhere near the gods or the archer. He was seated near the other head of the table, by the servers. Natasha would have noticed, ordinarily, but not with the God of Mischief in the room. What was even weirder, his eyes had turned brown again.

“The anthill has problems placing their trust in you.” Fury huffed at the name while Loki simply ignored him and went on. “That is not my problem. That is between you and them. I rather think this has more to do with the person,” he gestured to Clint “than the action.” His lips gave a twitch. “So kindly stop aiming that bow at me. We have important things to discuss.”

Natasha seemed to talk to the archer in a series of glances, which had the effect of calming him down. He sat down again, next to her, both weary and tense. Steve looked around the room. It was too big for the usual group, but now it seemed too small.

 Fury was prowling the space next to the door, at the end of the table, so could receive whatever reports were brought to him, the soldier to his right, as the team leader, while to his left stood the two gods. Then, with a few seats between them, the rest of the team: Clint, Natasha, with Agent Coulson standing behind them, on the other side Bruce and Tony’s empty chair at the other head of the table. There were all sorts of problems with the picture. The presence of Loki, the tension within the Avengers, the absence of one, made the space too tiny.

While he was feeling claustrophobic, his thoughts turned to what the archer was saying earlier. He wasn’t stupid, he heard Clint, even the parts that weren’t said, but didn’t want to discuss it. Better for them to think that he didn’t understand the sniper. Steve never had the opportunity to have an enemy that had good motives for being what he was, but he didn’t think that Tony should be defended or even be considered a hero if he truly had such a dark past. It’s why nobody believed him, well except Bruce, when he said that he had nothing to do with Loki.

He had thought that Tony had changed when he was ready to sacrifice his life over and over again, first for the Avengers – and the people of New York –, then for his friend. Even if his personality was something that one had to work past, he was noble in some ways. But that wasn’t the way he reacted today.

Steve did understand that not everybody had his values. Obviously, Fury thought the man had merits, even for all his faults, and he had to agree Tony made the team much better with his smarts. Even the ‘toys’ were the work of a genius. As he would say, literally. He had worked with people who didn’t share his principles. The Howling Commandoes were men who didn’t listen to orders, who were working all sorts of sneaky angles and not the soldiers he liked to remember them as. Though he rather thought he had the right to embellish his memories as he wanted.

What he didn’t have the right to do was forget who he was. And he had. He had forgotten what it was like to think orders through, sometimes to even question authority. In his haste to be the perfect soldier he had forgotten what it felt like to disagree with an order and still follow it through. Tony had angered him into showing his true nature last time, but this time he wasn’t here. It was much simpler to obey when you hadn’t thought things through. Still, that wasn’t who he was. And the engineer was a part of his team.

“Thanos is coming!”

Thor said with a certain amount of alarm. He was obviously waiting for a response, though they didn’t know what he was talking about, so they didn’t have any. Loki rolled his eyes.

“The mortals would not know who you are talking about, Thor.”

“But it is Thanos.”

The God of Lies ignored him.

“He is powerful entity, magical in origin and immortal.”

“Another god?” Natasha asked.

“Not precisely. When I say that Thanos is powerful, I mean that Thor is a weak kitten, when I say that he is magical, I mean that I am struggling to create a spark and when I say that he is immortal, I mean that the Aesir are going to expire by the end of the week.”

Finally, the God of Thunder had his reaction. Unfortunately, Steve didn’t think he was expecting quite that result. Clint’s head struck the table with a dull sound, Agent Coulson massaged his temple, Bruce gave a whispered ‘of course he is’, Natasha seemed unimpressed and he was inspecting his team.

“What makes this guy so fucking immortal?” That was Fury’s answer.

“Death refuses him.”

He barely heard the whispered ‘of course it does’ from Bruce over the noise of the servers. Clint tried to hit the table again though this time he met Natasha’s hand:

“You’re going to give yourself a concussion by the time it’s done.”

“I’m starting to associate that with the subject of gods.” Clint shot back.

Loki smirked.

“Thanos is drawn here because you are the destroyers of his army. He has others. Still, you managed to surprise him.”

“What army would that be?” Bruce asked wryly.

“The one I led.”

The doctor just nodded.

“My… Uh, Loki was revealed to be speaking the truth, otherwise I would not be here.”

“Wait a second, why do we just find out about this now?” wondered Steve.

“Probably that is on account of my not being allowed to speak after the capture.”

“What does this have to do with Stark?” Natasha questioned.

“Your Man of Iron was part of a plan I devised to persuade Odin to hear me. Where is he, by the by?”

Steve felt a stab of guilt.

“We’re gonna release him the moment you finish your story.” Fury answered in that no nonsense way he had.

Loki laughed. “Release?”

The director powered through: “You said you had a plan.”

“It involved one of my copies stealing Idunn’s apples, then placing them in the mortal’s apartment under a disguise to make them appear normal. I believe that was the part that held interest to you.”

Fury looked on with confusion, but Loki slowly turned to his left. Now that you mention it, Thor had avoided looking at that part of the room.

“Called it.” Tony said.

He stepped into the light, from in-between the large boxes containing the servers, making Fury and Natasha jump and reach their weapons. Steve didn’t have his shield, Clint had no reaction, though that was probably because he was watching the God of Lies, Agent Coulson appeared undisturbed and Bruce just smiled serenely at everyone. Son of a gun.

The archer finally moved his attention.

“What the hell Stark, you were supposed to be locked up.”

“I got bored.”

“How did you get in here?” Agent Coulson asked manifesting his deadpan curiosity.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Tony responded while Thor exchanged amused glances with his brother.

“So, what do we do first?” The engineer needled with delight. He was also moving his hands in a manner that made Fury nervous. Steve sighed.

  
*

POV: Phil

Phil was frankly unimpressed with everyone on this one. Really? They expected the guy who never listened to anybody to just wait patiently in custody, while they decided if they were going to let him go? Ha. It doesn’t matter how he did it, the man invented new ways to bring down governments before he had his first coffee. Thankfully, that was also why he didn’t remember them. 

“Don’t you think it’s more important to find out what is going to happen to you?” Romanoff, as always, had posed the million dollar question.

“Not here I don’t.” And, as always, Stark had managed to slip away.

“Where then?”

“At StarkTower. Behind heavy security. Just me, E.T. and E.T. the second. Where you won’t be able to hear, in other words.”

Phil said it first. Guy never told anyone anything. Not even which one was E.T. the second.

Loki, on the other hand, had an admiring glint in his eyes. Oh goodie, it was the blind leading the blind. Through a field where the landmines were nukes. A bit of overkill, though it was rather hard to actually hurt these particular sight challenged people. Earth was doomed. They were going to die.

“I believe rebuilding the Bifrost would take precedence.”

“What happened to it?” Inquired Banner.

“Mjolnir.”

Stark made a confused face.

“The hammer.” The doctor explained to his companion.

Thor wanted to say something, though at a look from Loki he lowered his eyes. There was something that they weren’t saying. Something significant. Phil sighed. So they weren’t over sharers, what was else was new? It wasn’t as if any of them went out of their way to give information. A more delicate process was involved, rather like extracting teeth.

“Then it fell into the abyss.” The God of Mischief finished.

“Thorough.” Stark quipped. “Rebuilding it: What do you need?”

“Multiple gems with little to no imperfections and something with the capacity to increase a small magical spark.”

“Do you mean like power source? Like the Tesseract?”

“Would that magical spark be by any chance Heimdall?”

Rogers asked at a same time as Thor.

“Yes, for both questions.”

Of course, that didn’t clear anything up, but they were used to Loki’s non-answers. Stark made a ‘do go on’ gesture. That man was insane. Apparently though, that was exactly the way he was supposed to react, since the god simply continued.

“The All-father refuses to yield the Tesseract. I have had this discussion with him before. He is of the opinion that it would be too powerful for such a purpose.”

“He’s not a sharer.” Stark said much to Loki’s amusement. Exactly like Phil said. The engineer turned to Banner. “The gems, flame or flux?”

“Flux, obviously.”

While Stark nodded, Barton rolled his eyes.

“Obviously.”

“There are two ways to make synthetic emeralds, rubies, sapphires. They have the same chemical make up. One in which the pressure, air, heat and some other things converge – the process is called by some ‘through flame’ for short – the result being basically colored glass and the other having them flux grown, recreating the natural conditions in a lab, – the flux that Tony mentioned earlier and which is the option I intend to use – the result being a rock with the same chemical composition and no imperfections.” The doctor pushed his glasses up his nose. “How many do you need?”

“Ah, competence. They shall be kept together with spells, which are my authority, so they are not an issue for you. That being said, we shall need enough for the rebuilding of  the bridge, about a hundred square meters, with a depth of five centimeters.”

Stark seemed to be thinking about something. “The rainbow bridge?”

“The what now?” Barton demanded, but Loki puzzlement was simply precious.

“Where did you hear that name?”

“Dr. Foster. She’s staying at the Tower.”

Thor’s entire face came alive. He looked for a brief period of time like a golden retriever. And Phil said brief because he soon met his brother’s glare. No, he still resembled a dog, the difference was that now he looked like a kicked puppy. Aw.

 “Yes, the very same.”

Stark seemed to be repressing a laugh as he turned to Banner.

“I can free about six floors for you at the tower. Seven if you add the one in the apartment half of the tower.”

The agent frowned, as the doctor nodded his agreement. It didn’t seem right. Stark would never want Banner staying away from him when working on a project, so that meant that the engineer didn’t plan on staying at the Avengers mansion anymore. Oh, fuck it, Fury!  

“I’ll be at the penthouse, as soon as it’s finished. Until then, you can find me in my workshop.”

Understanding colored every face in the room. Thor’s reaction was somber, Loki’s delighted and everyone else’s was more or less acceptance. Guilt, too. They could’ve found a better time than when an intergalactic war was looming for having trust issues.

“Consultant, is it? I wanna go back to that.” Great. Damn it, Phil knew that this wasn’t the director’s fault, but if he had treated Stark with a shred of delicacy maybe they wouldn’t be in this mess. “The space Vikings, of course, get a choice: the tower or the mansion?”

Like that was actually a choice.

“I would be honored to have a room next to Lady Foster’s.”

“Have a whole floor. Under, above? Well, when you decide let me know.”

Stark ignored the look from Thor. Fortunately, Loki spoke before any bloodshed. “I would also like to partake in that security you mentioned earlier.”

“The honor is mine.” The engineer said with a mocking bow. Seriously, if the man was to survive the week, call the agent a dotted goat. The again, it was a mystery how Stark had reached his twentieth birthday. And he was still kicking. That’s perseverance.

“Wait!” Fury shouted, making everyone freeze. One of Loki’s eyebrows crept up. “You said you need two things. One was clarified. The other one, you just served us some nonsense. So, Stark, what are we going to do about the power source?”

More of the engineer’s hand waving, this time not even Phil caught on. He could see Fury had a list. That was a good idea, actually.

“I’ll think of something.” Stark said with a wolfish smile. He left with Banner almost immediately after and Loki, laughing, went too.

If nothing else, this was going to be interesting.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bows to the greatness that is Alexandra, my beta. Thank you! As you well know, any remaining mistakes are my own and I would love it if you could point them out. Please and thank you! The warning for science and magic is generic at this point, just know that it still applies. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except the plot. 
> 
> Update: Saturday.

Chapter 6

POV: Tony

Tony entered the workshop, holding the door open for Loki, hoping the gesture would invite him in as he couldn’t talk at the moment.

“Yes, Pepper, I am moving from the mansion.”

The engineer was busy arguing on the phone. With his ex-assistant, ex-girlfriend, ex-CEO and brand new CFO.

“For how long?”

“Indefinitely.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have time to properly explain. Just call the interior designers or whomever and make sure it’s done by tonight.” Then mentally, “Jay reroute the call, please. Oh, and wake everybody up.” He put the phone on the table now that he could connect Jarvis to it and hear without any kind of headset.

“I just don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand. Okay, look, just tell Jarvis who to call and you’re done.”

Thor went to visit Dr. Foster as soon as they arrived at the tower saying something about how he couldn’t believe that he had been in the same building with her and not seeing her before. Bruce, of course, started in on organizing the space as he wanted it in order to grow the gems. That left him to entertain the God of Mischief. Joy. Then Thor was coming back so he could finally find out what he got into this time. Yay.

“They would rather talk to someone who has access to your credit cards.”

“Then you better give the numbers to Jay.”

“What are you talking about? Jarvis only has access only to the expense account, that won’t be enough.”

He started loading the A.I. into the penthouse, while watching surreptitiously as Loki met Dummy. They were both strangely shy.

“Actually, now Jarvis has access to all my accounts. You, on the other hand, have access to one. I’m renaming it the shoes account and encourage you to spend the money as I get myself in trouble.”

They’ve progressed to chirrups on Dummy’s side and whispers on Loki’s. U got closer, too.

“Are you insane? What if he gets hacked?”

“Nobody says hacked anymore. And. He. Can’t. Be. Hacked.”

He hoped his tone would be enough of an explanation, because he had already attracted the god’s attention. He couldn’t exactly say that to be able to hack Jarvis it would mean to hack him since nobody knew about Extremis. U and Dummy recaptured it soon enough. For how long though?

“But – “

“Just do it, Pepper.” After that Jay took over.

“Loki, comfortable?”

“Your creations are far more polite than you.”

“C’mon, I had to take care of that. I’d like to sleep in a bed at some point. Pepper took away my cot.”

The god looked unimpressed.

“Anyway, as far as my creations go, you haven’t met Jarvis yet, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Jay?” He asked mentally.

“Hello, sir. My name is Jarvis and I run the tower.”

Loki froze for a second then turned around in a circle.

“Marvelous.” He smiled slightly. It took several seconds for Tony to reconcile the insane god with the smiling person standing across from him. “Good day to you, sir. I am Loki Lie-smith.”

“A pleasure to meet you. Dummy and U say hello to you as well.”

“I had gathered that. Do I need to send my greetings through you or did they understand me the first time?”

“They can understand you, Mr. Lie-smith.”

“If you do not mind my asking, what are you?”

Tony must’ve been more tired then he thought because, for a split second, he read admiration in the look the trickster gave him.

“I am Mr. Stark’s Artificial Intelligence. As such I have access to and I run all of the building’s security. I also take care to the best of my abilities of his guests.”

“You actually managed to build a person.” Now Loki’s amazement was obvious.

“I didn’t build him. He did it himself. I just gave him a heuristic algorithm and made sure to stick around so he could ask me questions.”

“Sir is modest.”

The god smirked. Oh, good, he thought he had stepped in another world.

“Not modest. He wants me to underestimate him. But though I do not wish to comment unfavorably on your ability to create yourself, I am aware that the start of such an incursion is very difficult. Impossible to do with magic.”

That subject was better left untouched.

“You tried it.”

“I did not. I stopped at animals, they took far too much energy.”

“Well, it’s easier to do with technology.”

The god kept eye contact for a few more seconds.

“Perhaps.”

Tony scratched at his beard.

“This… Bifrost, you said?” At the trickster’s nod, he went on. “Tell me more about it. More about the mechanics of it.”

The God of Mischief thought for a few moments then began explaining the intricacies of the device. As he described it from the smallest detail, he showed an understanding of events, that were all hand-wave-y for Thor, which Tony had found in Bruce and, from a distance, Dr. Foster.  Loki wasn’t satisfied just knowing that things work, he wanted to know how they did.

Sure, at some points he leaned more on spells, but he did try to simplify them to their exact roles, analyze why there was needed a particular one to complete a certain function. There was genius there, a truly playful intelligence hid in between shades of insanity. And the engineer’d be a hypocrite to judge a man by his having a screw loose or two. As for the whole invasion business, he’d keep an eye out, but he wouldn’t hold that against him, after all he could’ve done that with a well placed bomb. Not his style anymore. Still.

“Are you paying attention?” The god asked, irritated.

“No. I’m thinking fractal.”

“I am unfamiliar with the word.” Loki said, confused. Tony told Jarvis to snap a picture.

“The word refers to a geometrical figure. Like a sphere or a cube. One property of this particular figure is the fact that it repeats itself, preserving its shape at whatever scale you watch it.” Jay chose this moment to show a model of a fractal which the engineer got to zooming to prove his point. “It’s used for a lot of things, including antennas, because it takes a pretty weak signal, like Heimdall’s spark, and it bounces within itself until it’s strong enough for whatever we need, transport a hundred people for example. Now, did that fit what you know about magic or we scratch it and go back to the drawing board?” 

The god had his eyes narrowed, his lips were forming words that were impossible to hear and he was closely studying the model. “It seems to be right.” He was looking disturbed.

“Then make why make that face?” Tony was, frankly, offended. By Loki’s face. Yes, well. “Don’t raise your eyebrow at me, you know what face. The one like the parrot just answered correctly a math question.”

He managed to make the God of Mischief amused.

“I was under the opinion that birds on Midgard were not sentient.”

“Ergo,” the engineer took on a British accent, “the face.”

The god grinned. Great. At least now, Loki couldn’t say he was a bad host. He had the entertainment part down, at least.

“It was merely surprise. I was not even aware of this shape. There is not much that escapes me, but I am afraid this particular figure has managed to allude me.”

“Hence the face.”

He pursed his lips. “Yes.”

“Not gonna admit to it?”

The trickster smirked. “Of course not, God of Mischief and Lies, remember?”

Tony grudgingly acknowledged the truth of that statement, while running a system’s check on the security in the penthouse.

“Where is the light that you carried in your chest?”

The engineer’s head snapped up.

“Where did you find out about that?”

“When the scepter hit your chest it struck something made out of metal and glass. When you were in the armor – “

“After the defenestration.”

Loki allowed that through a nod. Nope, no apology there. “– in the same place there could be found an object that shined an almost white light. That was before you blasted me away.”

Ah, he could see now. He didn’t feel the least bit sorry for that one.

“It’s not the same object.”

“Though it looks the same. The device in your chest served as inspiration for the one in your armor.”

Tony’s eyes widened imperceptibly. The god was pretty smart, got to give him that.

“I took it out.”

“Was it really so simple? Barton said something about palladium poisoning. That would seem to be the right time to do it.”

The engineer looked around the room, at the holograms, at the monitors, at the other knick knacks then finally settled on Loki.

“Who helped you?”

The trickster frowned, not understanding.

“I know a thing or two about illusions, your copies, and I have to say, –” he grabbed a holographic sphere that was floating around the lab, “– in my experience, when you get them far enough from their source of power, – ” he threw it through an open window, “ – they disappear.”  Tony finished just as the sphere faded. “And I’m thinking that another plane is pretty far, even by your estimation.”

The god inclined his head with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, so the engineer continued.

“What I want to know, well, what I want to know and have any hope of you answering, is how come nobody on Asgard realized the truth?”

“Frigga knows, though she has not said anything. Sentiment. As for the others, Odin included, they do not want to know what I can do, so they simply assume that I can do anything. The king considers illusions something of a child’s play, so he is not well versed in the matter.”

“Are you telling me that they just accepted your story because they don’t want to know any better? Weren’t you supposed to be in prison?” He shook his head. “The All-father has his head in the sand.” Tony whispered as he approved Bruce’s expenses.

“Is that experience I hear?”

He was startled by the god’s hearing. Probably should remember that.

“In a way.”

“Who?”

The trickster was asking whom his father preferred in his place. For whom he was being ignored and unnoticed.

Tony considered the question carefully. On the one hand, it was a way to open dialogue with the god, a way towards knowing him better, which considering that he going to work with the guy, was all too important. Like they say that you have to when someone holds you at gun point. Force them see you as a person, make them invest something in their relationship with you. On the other hand, this was Loki, who knew how he was going to use that against him? As for the second reason, he would have to reciprocate to apply.

The engineer was always the type to jump in feet first, so what the hell, right?

“You met him, actually. Our dear old Captain America.”

Loki made a face like he was smelling something that had gone bad. Tony’s turn. Time to find out if his risk paid out.

“Thor?”

The god was amused. “Thor.”

Tony smiled and only a part of it was because taking the risk had been worth it.

*

“You do yourself no honor, Man of Iron, to neglect to announce that Lady Jane resides here.” Thor boomed from the entrance.

Tony who had been speaking with Loki looked up at the sudden commotion. “I didn’t really think about it. I heard from Agent that you protected her and I offered her a place here, free of charge. She was excited about staying in New York, heard I was someone you knew, so she accepted. Never really talked to her, wasn’t even here when she came. I think Pepper welcomed her. I was probably busy doing something else.”

“You dare to offend her work by saying it is beneath your notice?”

“I don’t actually. I heard she was really smart, but my research said she hates anyone with money or authority. So do I. The problem is, I am one of those men, and since I had more pressing concerns, I thought I’d let her stay in peace for a while. You know more about one of those more pressing concerns than me. And really, Thor, I don’t love her. You do.” The engineer defended.

The God of Thunder hesitated prompting the billionaire to revise his words.

“Fine. You sleep with her, I don’t. Was gonna say that the first time, but you are strangely prudish for someone looking like a Viking frat boy.”

“How dare you speak of her this way?”

“Thor, he did first say you loved her, but you seemed to reject that idea too. Why do you not decide on some sentiment and we shall follow your lead?”

Tony had a large smile on his face, teeth showing. It was very fake. Then again he was pointing at Loki and nodding, as if to say ‘what he said’, so that might have been weirder. Unfortunately, said god saw him. Rolling his eyes, he said:

“Thank you, Stark. For your bravery.” He deadpanned. “Lack of cowardice.”

“What? He’s a god and I don’t have the suit.”

Loki raised an eyebrow and nodded as if grudgingly acknowledging his point. His brother, however, didn’t give up without a last: “Still, why should I permit him to speak this away? Why should you?”

“On the matter of your affair with the mortal, I find it quite refreshing. You might find that attitudes have changed a great deal on the mortal plane. These things are not quite as taboo as they once were – still are as far as Asgard is concerned – and as such they are a lot less disrespectful, if at all. On the other matter, he shall soon be one of us or die in the process. If the former, he is comparatively less crass than your Warriors Three, if the latter, who are we to begrudge him his words in the final months of his life?”

“Thank you for that wonderful eulogy, Loki. Especially seeing as I’m still alive.” The god smirked, unapologetic. “But thanks, really, because that brings to what you are here for. So, how much trouble am I in?”

Thor glanced at his brother. The God of Mischief huffed, but started to speak.

“You shall have to partake in three challenges. Two of them are necessary for your continued existence.” He paused when he reached this point. Tony lifted an eyebrow, silently asking why he had stopped, but the only answer the billionaire received was a small twitch of his lips, while he went on. Great, his non-reaction upon hearing his death sentence amused the god. Now all was good in the world again. “One of them is timed, usually the second, though that has been known to change. The challenges vary too much for us to tell you what you should expect, but know that you shall face them as a warrior of Midgard. You have one year to participate in the challenges. If at the end of the year you have not, or if you choose to run from us, you will be found and executed immediately. ”

“See, this why I can’t have nice things.” The engineer said dryly.

Loki looked around the workshop as if disagreeing.

“It’s an expression. Go on.”

“The apples offer you long life and have to be consumed every century so you don’t grow old prematurely. That being said, there are not so many old gods on Asgard.”

“They get bored with life?”

Loki nodded. “Or they forget to value it and think they are indestructible, when there are, in fact, many creatures that can kill us. Your senses may be slightly enhanced. As for speed and strength, you have to train those, if interested. Most Aesir do not, nor do I think that you shall particularly need it what with your other resources. You might find you are a lot more durable and a smidge faster. Magic, unfortunately, is not a talent that occurs naturally in your race, maybe but a handful per generation. If you had it, you would have known.” The trickster seemed to search his mind for any detail he might’ve missed. “I think that is all. Thor, anything to add?”

“An apology shall not go amiss.”

Tony laughed while the God of Thunder seemed confused at his reaction. “Something tells me he doesn’t apologize with any amount of honesty. Not until he seriously regrets it.”

“Neither do you.” Loki accused.

The billionaire shrugged. “Got to take it from somewhere. I recommend experience.”

The God of Mischief just looked at Tony, while the engineer did his best to appear innocent. Thor snorted.

“I was not exactly spoiled for choice.” The trickster said. In no way could that be interpreted as an apology. Maybe an explanation, if you eyes were squinted and you were deaf.

“No hard feelings, but you owe me one.”

Loki thought about that for a second.

 “Fair enough.” He agreed.

The God of Thunder frowned. “I do not understand you. Either of you. And I am not sure I want to.” 

“Sir, Ms. Potts, incoming. ETA 30 sec.” Jarvis announced him mentally. He groaned. The trickster glanced at him.

“Wait for it.”

The gods heard the elevator in about ten seconds, which was still pretty impressive considering that the elevator was virtually silent. That meant he could also hear it now, so he concentrated and there it was. Hm, useful. Twenty seconds later had Tony suddenly thinking that he might have to put more money into the shoes account.

“Are you immortal?”

“Where the hell did you get that?”

“I assure you this has nothing to do with Hel.” The God of Mischief said.

Mainly to attract Pepper’s attention to the presence of the two aliens, Tony answered him.

“Language’s evolved, it’s now a curse word. Ask Jarvis for help if you want to know more. I’d go with British ones for you. They fit the accent.” Then turning towards his CFO, whose eyes were widened as if only now seeing the two gods: “Yes, that is Loki. Don’t worry, he’s harmless.” The trickster did a spell out of sight that pinched him. When the engineer straightened due to mild pain, he smirked.  “He won’t hurt you, he wants me to work for him. And please stop talking to Ms. Romanoff, she spied on us for months.”

Jarvis reported Thor looking questioningly at his brother and said sibling ignoring him.

“One, there were only two months. Two, she spied on you, we got along just fine. Three, she shares information, unlike other people.”

“One of these days, Pepper, your sharing information with Ms. Romanoff will bite me in the ass. That’s the day when you can be sure I’ll stop telling you anything. Not like now, when I was just trying to find out all the details before spilling my guts.”

He made a face at the expression in the context of his immortality. Or better yet, his death. Even Thor looked disturbed. Loki, on the other hand was trying not to laugh by the way his lips kept twitching. His brother looked at him disapprovingly, which only made it worse. The fucker, the engineer thought with a smile.

The lovely Ms. Potts, however, didn’t know what was going on through their heads. What she did know, was the fact that she was full of righteous anger. His favorite kind.

“I have to talk to somebody. And she is the only woman I know who can sometimes say things back. For example, are you an immortal or not?”

“Oh, is that right? I guess she just forgot to mention that they were keeping me locked away while they were investigating those apples you saw me eating. Of course, she wouldn’t ask you about them, she trusts you too much.” He said sarcastically. “To answer your question: not yet.”

Pepper seemed taken aback for a few seconds, but then she gave a slight shake of her head and continued. That’s what he used to admire about her, among other traits, the stubbornness, but now it just annoyed him.

“Natasha must’ve had her reasons.” The billionaire rolled his eyes. “Tony you can’t, for any reason, become immortal. Think about the company. The shares.”

“I’d have thought that the company would only be so happy to have me around for longer. The shares would certainly not be affected. Besides, nobody needs to know for at least another ten years.” He said, confused.

“First, IronMan. Then Extremis.” He very carefully was not looking at the gods, but Jarvis told him the cameras captured no change in them. Pepper was clearly so affected that she had forgotten that the virus was secret. Or she had forgotten about the two aliens who were currently watching them as if they were a mildly interesting tennis match. “And now this?” She finished on a higher note, as if the subject was causing her pain.

“She is afraid.” Loki said. Thor was, worryingly, regarding his brother with concern. “She is terrified of what you can do.” He said with his eyes narrowed.

Tony would have been more surprised by that before the ‘I leave you because you are Iron Man’ thing. He was more interested by how the trickster seemed to be speaking from experience. Pepper had stiffened.

The billionaire raised his eyebrows silently asking for more details. The god nodded and flapped his hand, which he took to mean ‘later’. He returned to his conversation with Pepper, but not without seeing the bemused expression on the elder brother’s face as he watched their short exchange.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“I was born into absolute power. I made absolute power and it got shoved in my face. Over and over. Believe me, my death has always been too close for me to be corrupted. And that won’t change even if I live several hundred years.”

“You’re too smart!” Pepper finally shouted, breathing hard.          

“It’ll be useful when I have to pass some Hercules-like challenges or the alien civilization kills me.”

“What?”

“He shall be cut in half. Beheaded. Perhaps he shall have his heart cut out of his chest. Do you understand or shall I have to think of more bloody ways in which he could die?” Loki viciously said.

“No need to sound so gleeful about it, Giggles.”

“Cease with the name calling, I am not very fond of it.” He was watching them with lazy eyes. “I cannot sound gleeful because I do not think it a possibility. It would only happen if you are not the mortal I think you are and, if that is so, then I do not care one way of the other.”

Thor blinked, expressively showing his confusion, while Pepper stayed silent still traumatized from earlier. Tony narrowed his eyes. Was that a compliment? Really?

As alarming as that was, or perplexing, let’s go with perplexing, it sounded more complicated, also had an ‘x’ in it, and a compliment from Loki certainly deservers a word with an ‘x’ in it, all the engineer said was: “Chuckles, then?”

The trickster pinched him again. This time he didn’t even hide it.

“Would you stop that? It hurts.”

“I warned you.”

The small argument, which was more banter than anything, stopped the moment Pepper let out a heartfelt sound with tears burning in her eyes.

“Tony…You can’t die.”

The billionaire suddenly felt lost. It felt as if she was already mourning him, although she apparently thought he was too smart. He couldn’t do anything about either: he couldn’t change the fact that he was intelligent and couldn’t do anything about the fact that he was involved in the trickster’s latest plan. All he could do was what he’d always done: invent stuff. When it was finished, the dust settled, he could take stock again. But he didn’t know how to deal with the excess of faith and, at the same time, with overwhelming grief caused by the complete lack of it. He could still pass the challenges, for fuck’s sake!

Before he knew it, he had taken several steps towards her, arms outstretched as if he wanted to console her or something. She took a deep breath, chin up and ready for a fight. He stopped, confused. When he opened his mouth to explain, discuss, argue, whatever, Loki was suddenly next to him.  The god put a hand on his elbow.

“You have a fractal the size of a ballroom to construct, time is of the essence.” The engineer was watching those green eyes, what was the trickster trying to say to him? Then he got it. He was telling him she wouldn’t understand. Tony looked down for several moments. Yeah, that sounded about right. They would get into an even bigger argument and he really didn’t want to lose his only family over saying something that he would only regret later. He raised his eyes again, determined. The green eyes were warmer then usual.

“Probably.” He tuned back to his monitors, suddenly tired. “I’m sorry, Pepper. I’m busy.”

She took a deep breath, as if composing herself.

“Actually, I have some paperwork for you to sign. Nothing important, just maintenance work.” Pepper said, sounding professional again.

“I rather think I could help you speed things along.” Loki said spelling the papers from her hands into his. He got to looking them over. The billionaire hid his smile at seeing the trickster doing something so human by tweaking a number into the long sequence Jarvis was running. The dimensions weren’t right for the strength they were looking for and the engineer got lost for a second in thinking about different fractal shapes.

“Sir, they are calling for you.” Jarvis told him mentally and when he lifted his head he saw that, sure enough, everybody was watching him. Loki had a really annoying ‘told you so’ expression when he glanced at Pepper. He thanked Jarvis. Out loud, he said:

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I require your signature in illusion form.”

Thor frowned but the billionaire knew what he was talking about. He grabbed a stylus and wrote it in holographic form, then threw it at him. Tony followed the god as he caught it, held it in his hand, then made the papers briefly glow green. He spelled them back into her hands, after that. The God of Thunder was watching them all with an amused expression.

“Have a lovely morning, Ms. Potts.” The trickster smiled blandly. She glared and left.

“Morning, Ms. Potts.” The engineer’s focus was already on the numbers again. He absently heard the two gods talking. Something about Thor wanting to speak to Loki. The God of Mischief was saying he had an errand to run and could they talk the next day. Tony spared just enough of his attention to hope that the two brothers would solve things. At least, he was pretty sure that’s what the elder sibling wanted. Finally!

The billionaire lifted his head, saw he was alone, then proceeded to spend the next ten hours or so with loud music, Jay and the fractal.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of thanks to my wonderful beta, Alexandra! The mistakes are all mine and I would appreciate it if you could point them out to me. I also wanted to thank all the lovely people who leave kudos, comments or bookmark the fic. You are awesome!  
> The same warning concerning magic and science, but I have another one in which I butcher (or is it my interpretation of facts?) Norse mythology. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, places or names.
> 
> Next update: Wednesday.

Chapter 7

POV: Thor

Thor entered Loki’s rooms.

“It is a good reflector of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared, visible light and radio waves. And Mr. Odinson has just entered your apartment.”

“Radio waves are what Stark used to compare with spells.” The trickster was speaking with another who apparently knew his position in the rooms. “Just how similar are they?”

The God of Thunder made his way down the short hallway into the parlor. He saw no one so it must be Stark’s technological servant.

“Very. The only difference I see is that spells sometimes have color.”

His brother nodded and then turned to him.

“A knock is appropriate.”

“My presence was announced.”

“Still.” Loki lifted a finger in a sign to wait a few moments. “Retain the subject of the conversation, we shall come back to it. Thank you, Jarvis.”

“Of course, Mr. Lie-smith.”

“Marvelous creature, is he not?” asked the trickster.

“Because he was created and not born, or on account of him having a sense of humor you appreciate?”

“Both. Although Stark receives the merit for creating a person. The sense of humor, however, is all Jarvis.” His brother smirked.

“You get along quite well with the Man of Iron.” He paused for bit, gathering his thoughts. “It is similar with how you used to communicate with mother: you have no use for words.”

“It is quite easy to do when somebody understands you before your words take actual form. It makes for a lot more secretive conversation, and you know how much I dislike interference in my discussions.”

“I am gladdened by the fact that you see that mortals can be useful.” Thor said earnestly.

“I never doubted that. As you know, I wandered much between realms. Spent some time in each of them. More than anyone in Asgard, that is for certain. You probably noticed that I tend to be more familiar with their customs. I was on this plane more than you, so I know the worthiness of mortals.”

“Then why attack them?” The God of Thunder posed the question as serious as he knew how. Loki had a small, bitter smile.

“Why attack you?” The trickster countered. He sighed, the gesture weary. “Say you were a prince of a lovely realm – ”

“I am a prince a lovely realm.” The god said. Then looked at the trickster who had a ‘you are so stupid, rocks are smarter then you’ expression. He personally named it his ‘Thor face’ and he knew he was in trouble the moment he saw it. “I shall hold my tongue.” Then the God of Thunder realized what Loki was trying to do. He wished rather ardently that his brother would not stop his story.

“Say you were a prince of a lovely realm.” Thor smiled, it seemed like his transgression was forgiven. “Say you were planning something else, which was not exactly successful – ” That surprised the elder sibling. He thought that his coronation and all that followed went according to plan. “When you find out that you are not who you thought you were. Say you found out you were exactly the one thing in the world that you were taught to hate.” The God of Thunder winced. “Say that after, you went a little… insane. Then you let go. Say that you saw things. Say that you never shall be the same again. What then would you do?”

He felt the sudden urge to embrace Loki. To protect him.

“In the words of a brilliant mortal, I did some stupid shit.”Thor was confused. His brother laughed. “Stark. Remember after I asked for that drink? He gave it to me and said that – ”

“You did some stupid shit.” The trickster nodded making the God of Thunder feel very proud. He had forgotten how much his brother’s approval in such matters meant to him. Of course, he had never showed it. Perhaps he should have. He would, from now on at least. “I did my share of foolish things, brother. My whole childhood, my whole youth, even when you found out the truth of your heritage, I was doing something foolish.”

Loki just looked sad.

“Do you truly not see, Thor? I am not your brother.”

The God of Thunder did not see. He understood him, but he refused to just accept it. They had been together their whole life, meanwhile Thor had been childish at best and when it is Loki’s turn to be less than mature, less than his frankly brilliant self he cannot even keep his brother. Where is the fairness in that?

Storm clouds were gathering. When lightening struck and thunder could be heard booming across the land, his brother turned weary eyes on him. That was who Loki was, his brother. And he needed to ensure that he shall never doubt this bond they shared. He started looking for a blade in the trickster’s rooms. His little brother’s eyes turned suspicious in the time it took him to locate the room where food was to be prepared. He seized a knife.

The moment his fingers touched the blade Jarvis said:

“Mr. Odinson, please calm down.”

When he returned to the parlor the servant sounded an alarm. Loki was confused. In all his faces, since he had made several.

“Thor?”

The God of Thunder cut his hand.

“Will you accept me as your brother in arms?”

Loki – and his copies – appeared to be shocked. But before he could answer in any way, the Man of Iron, without his armor, ran into the room, frowned and tried to stop, so he slid the rest of the way. He seemed to evaluate the situation at a glance. The alarms stopped.

They could all hear a roar. The engineer’s eyes widened, he twisted towards the door and opened his mouth. Just in time, too, because the berserker chose the next moment to crash through the door taking with it a part of the wall surrounding it. Suddenly, dust filled the room. 

The Man of Iron coughed. His hand flapped to dispel the dust.

“Nothing’s going on here, big guy, but you made good time. What was that, fifteen seconds?”

Thor did not understand what the engineer was doing, though the god knew he was doing something. Loki and one of his doubles or the other way around – the trickster was right, he was never going to learn how to differentiate between the two – shuffled until the God of Thunder was in the warpath of the berserker, if it came to that.

He was filled with warmth at the thought that his little brother was still considering him as someone he could hide behind if he did not feel safe. He was not anymore under the impression that it was done because Loki lacked courage. He understood now that it was because the trickster sought every advantage in a battle to ensure the best possible outcome. Just like he would. Only where Thor could see only in straight lines, those he deemed honorable, his brother allowed for curves, those who helped him achieve his objective. Since spending time with mortals he started seeing the merit of curves.

“Ten.” The berserker answered. It truly surprised Thor that he could speak, but maybe that was the engineer’s goal, to calm his rage with conversation.

“Pinky and the Brain were talking. I guess that’s when Pinky decided to cut his hand. The Brain probably got nervous, thought Pinky was going to cut _his_ hand… off. And Jarvis started the alarms.” The Man of Iron turned towards them. “Am I right or am I right?”

Loki’s copies disappeared as if in answer. It seemed to enough for the engineer. “That’s why the cartoons were so funny.”

The berserker huffed. “Puny gods.”

“Well, better leave them to it.” The Man of Iron gestured to wall and glanced in their direction. Considering the fact that it meant nothing to Thor, he guessed that whatever was said, the engineer addressed Loki. Who gave a nod. So, yes, he was talking to his brother.

“How are the gems?” Anthony Stark maneuvered his way through the rubble with his hand on the berserker’s forearm. Who amazingly kept pace with him, did not move his hand and even answered the question.

“Good. Tiny.”

As soon as they disappeared in the elevator, Loki waved his hand and repaired the wall, which was probably what the engineer had asked. Thor shook his head, but what he ended up saying something completely different.

“He is insane.”

Loki smiled. “He has a way with monsters.”

The God of Thunder felt as if he had been struck.

“You are not a monster any more than I am. Or that the mortals here are.” Thor swallowed. “It was cruel of father to raise us with those stories.”

Loki took his hand.

“I can heal this. It is not too late to reconsider. I am a Frost Giant. And that is the best thing you could say about me in this last few years. I do not regret what happened, what I did, except perhaps trying to murder you.” The trickster was sheepish. He did not apologize though.  “What I mean to say is that I am not the kind of person a prince or future king of Asgard should be brothers in arms with.”

“I shall never reconsider.” The God of Thunder whispered knowing that a louder tone would be taken as a pronouncement and not as a promise.

Loki took the blade. He cut his hand. The trickster then offered it to Thor.

“Brothers in arms.”

*

POV: Loki

Almost nine days had passed since he had a brother again. It was something he never thought he would recover, something he did not offer enough importance to until he got it back.

He was once again in Stark’s workshop answering the billionth question about magic and spells. Thankfully, the man was brilliant, which meant that the discussions were conducive to personal growth and not prone to annoying him. Comparing ideas, even with someone in such a different field, was not something he was used to doing.

They also had much in common. The way their minds would slither through tactics, finding the one that no one else was expecting, for one. Another would be how they both understood the shadows as being an integral part of light.

“So, Loki. By the way, would you call me Tony already because all that ‘Stark’ makes me feel like you’re gonna attack me again, and that just isn’t done to somebody who’s helping you.”

“Am I making you nervous, Tony?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?” The engineer rolled his eyes. “Okay, you’re making me very nervous. You’re making me afraid. Terrified, even. Every time I turn my back to you, it feels like a thousand ants are crawling on my back and – ”

As if Loki would believe that for one second.

“You prefer Tony. Understood.”

The billionaire just gave an audacious grin.

“Anyway, so I let it go for about a week. That’s years for everybody else.”

The God of Lies was unimpressed. Tony sighed. “Fine. I want to know. What made the whole thing with Pepper ring alarms in that big brain of yours? Even Thor seemed to be concerned. It is really worrying with that puppy dog look he’s rocking, baby seals cried.”

Loki, despite his best intentions, laughed. That man, honestly, baby seals. It also managed, as he no doubt planned it, to reduce the tension he was feeling when he usually told anybody about her.  

“I used to be married to Sigyn. Concerning sentiment, I suppose we both shared an interest in each other.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “So you both loved each other.”

“More like strong attachment. Until the end of the marriage there was nothing left of it.”

The engineer nodded.

“She was afraid of you, too.”

“That is how it started, yes. She began by being amazed when my plans came to fruition. Then as I got more adept at using the random elements in my schemes and they were still a success, she was frightened. Sigyn tried to hide it for awhile, but as time passed, it became obvious.”

There was silence for a few moments, but the trickster could feel the other man thinking, so he just waited.

“I feel like I should offer you a drink or something, but I don’t think I have something that’ll get you drunk. Hot chocolate with a shot of scotch?”

“Hot chocolate… Is that not the substance that mortals drink which is extremely sweet?”

“Sure is.”

“Then yes, I would like some.” No sooner had he finished the sentence that the machine in corner of room started. He turned to look, surprised. The engineer was already halfway to the kitchen and what he guessed to be the strong spirits cabinet.

“So how about kids? Got any? Because apparently Norse mythology is… unclear on that front.”

Loki smirked.

“That was unusually delicate.”

“I’m trying something new.” Tony handed him a cup. “And I know gossip. It can be anything.”

“No, I do not have any children. You?”

“None that I know of.”

The trickster waited until the engineer had taken a sip. “I think I may know of one.” The coughing fit that followed was an expected response. “Jarvis. He is yours in a way, is he not?”

“I guess. I’d say more like brothers if I actually knew a pair that got along most of the time. So… good friends?”

“I know the type of relationship you speak of. Hel, one of my rumored children, is in fact an old friend. I found her in the palace woods, she had been given a potion to make her look like a child, maybe twelve years old as you would count them, but we were not aware of that at the time. I was about twenty-three years old and decided to take her in.”

He saw Tony frown, so he explained. “Her appearance is rather unique. It is actually what finally separated Sigyn and I. She was terrified of this child, considered her to be some sort of bad omen that would surely bring us misery until the end of our lives. My reaction was less dramatic, in some respects. In others, she would say that I exaggerated when I petitioned the All-father for a divorce.

“Presented with the opportunity to be an older brother, I did fairly well. I took care of her until she was about fourteen, when she recovered her memory and her full grown body. She was revealed to be the queen of Helheim, the underworld for most of the realms, who had been poisoned to forget by a god when she received his lover. Hel did not murder the woman, nor did she reap her but apparently the god thought that she should spend the period alone and, as such, will learn how he felt. He hoped that he will recover his lover in this way.”

“Man, did that backfire.”

Loki smiled.

“Yes, it did. In the end, we stayed close friends. I go visit her at times.”

“Shouldn’t you be dead for that?”

 “Yes, usually.”

“But you obviously aren’t.”

“Tell me, Tony, why is it you seem to communicate telepathically with things of a technological nature? Even when you are away from your tower. At S.H.I.E.L.D., for example. The alarms started suspiciously fortuitous, just in time for you to enter the room, and then the shining – ”

“The servers.”

“Very well, the servers. The noise they made, increased in increments until, I guess, your breathing could not be heard by the soldier.”

The engineer seemed to contemplate on that for a bit.

“I’ll answer that because I want you to tell me about the other stuff.” Loki nodded. “Several months ago, there was a… man with a virus.” The God of Mischief raised an eyebrow. “I was trying my hand at diplomacy. There was an asshole who had hired a genius to perfect a virus. She wasn’t able to stabilize it, so when people got mad, they blew up. She did manage to give whomever was infected the ability to heal, but that was limited as I later discovered. You could still kill them. Anyway, so he infected Pepper. That made me want to make it safe and in the meantime I discovered a way to recode it. While giving up some characteristics, I managed to give myself permanent access to Jarvis and from him to any other technology.  Of course, the others don’t know because we don’t need any more super soldiers.”   

“You also kept the healing component.”

Tony glanced at him in appraisal. “And you know that because I showed up without a suit. Any chance Thor figured it out?”

“No, he is not observant by nature. Anything that might save you from Odin’s wrath, if it comes to that?”

“I killed one of them by blowing a hole through their body, so no. The other one I just blew up, but that isn’t important seeing as you didn’t say it was a possibility. Actually it was a few I got that way. Force of habit.” He shrugged. “Another?”

Loki nodded. “I made my first doorway when Hel returned home. It was a spell hidden inside a locket which would allow me to visit her as I wished. Afterwards it got easier, seeing as I was opening a portal from the underworld to the realms, and not between realms themselves. I still manage to have quite a few.”

“Then why did you need help?”

“The prison in Asgard reflects back the spells of the prisoners. So, I made a doorway – similar to that I had constructed in Helheim – when I was last here, hidden in an emerald. I just needed another person to activate it.” He drew the emerald by its chain to show it to the engineer.

“Shouldn’t your associate have that?” Tony asked wryly. The god smirked.

“She was under the impression that it was only good for a return trip, so she threw it away as soon as she was done. It was also a certain danger of capture and she did not want anyone to follow it back to her. She discarded it. I reclaimed it.”

“Fair enough.” The engineer said, laughing. He offered Loki a cup. “Who was it? The god who poisoned you queen?”

“Baldur.”

“I know that one. That’s the guy you off-ed with mistletoe. Or something. Then you were punished.”

“The Aesir considered it unfair for Baldur to be reunited with somebody he poisoned. Why should he be punished for taking revenge on the wrong person?” He sneered. “The gods then decided to take steps toward him not dying for a longer time than we.”

“They forgot about you, didn’t they?”

“Hel is a friend, one that I felt was owed vengeance, thus I found a way to kill him – with mistletoe. I then arranged for it to happen. He was not Thor’s brother, nor was he Odin and Frigga’s son, he was just beloved by all. The punishment never came as they did not have evidence against me. I just helped another god, nothing against the laws of Asgard. All the other accusations that were brought up against me were about shape shifted bodies. It could be any self-respecting sorcerer.”

He was amazed at how his story seemed to lift the engineer mood, he was permanently wearing a smile. From time to time, he would actually laugh instead of listening in mortified silence or frowning disapprovingly. It was quite pleasurable, sitting down, exchanging stories about mischievous and devious deeds. The drink, also, was quite delectable, sweet with a bit of a bite. 

“The gods then made up the story about the snake, because they felt bad for being taken for a ride by the trickster. I bet that was last time you were overlooked. Not the last time you were accused of something. Even something you didn’t do.”

“It is true that I tend to be blamed for all of Asgard’s misfortunes. Considering that I actually am at fault for quite a bit of them, that it is all added to my reputation and that now is by far too late to change people’s minds about me – even if I wished it– I have decided to watch the flame – be aware for when it gets out of control – not extinguish it. Of course, that rather got turned on its head these last few years.”

Loki would have thought that the engineer was looking at him with pity, if not for the delight in his eyes and the laughter at the corners of his mouth. He suddenly knew how the other gods felt when they were subjected to his glee. The very idea made him smile wickedly. Here, he had found an equal.

“So wait. What about the snake?”

“Jormungandr.”

“Yeah, not gonna happen.”

The God of Mischief laughed. “Choose something shorter then. For example Jor for Jormungandr, Fen for Fenrir and Sleip for Sleipnir.”

“That’s the snake, the wolf and the horse, right? That’s all?”

“Yes and yes. There are in fact the animals I talked about.”

“The ones you made with magic?”

“You recognized the names, so you know the myths. Their characteristics are comprised in the stories, even if their origins or their locations are much exaggerated. They are magical creatures, in the most literal sense. I made them, trained them and then unleashed them on the world.”  

“Technology can’t do that. Give robots a personality, sure. Self-building intelligence, you bet. But animals, even ones with eight legs, that breathe, move, eat just like any other, that it can’t do. Yet, but still.”

Tony had a glint in his eye. It would seem insane to anyone else, but Loki would hazard a guess that the engineer had just found his equal too. Perfect. Now to take steps towards cultivating something that resembled trust.

“It was honestly rather painful. Between the bite marks, escaping the hooves and trying to slither out of a large snake’s hold, it was a rather agonizing training. In the end though, satisfying.”

Loki found himself under scrutiny from the engineer. His lips curved without his permission. Tony had understood the olive branch for what it was and was now considering it.

“You know, I am pretty familiar with the concept. Only mine ended with some seriously bitter-sweet taste. The palladium poisoning was from arc reactor, the shiny thing in my chest, but it was slowly and painfully killing me. I finally found a way to re-discover a new element, only I could actually make it. I made a new core for the arc reactor.”

“Your father?”

“Was the man who first discovered it, yeah.”

“I was very close to dying once, of my own free will. I was hanging off a bridge, the very bridge that we are all building, in fact, and I let go. I did not see any other way to escape the disarray that had become my life. It is rather humorous though, that I found my will to live when the whole premise had become impossible.”

“And came back from it.” Tony said unexpectedly.

“I suppose, both of us know a little something about overcoming adversity.”

“Can you shape shift into anything?”

“Yes.” Loki was puzzled by the unexpected turn of the conversation.

“Then turn into a cockroach. Ask them how they deal with it, then hurry back and tell me too.”

“They are, I would imagine, quite different from us. To begin with, I do not think they look for trouble.”

“That’s boring.”

“It is.”

The two men made eye contact and raised their cups in a toast.

*

A signal appeared on a screen behind the engineer just as they returned to discuss the mechanics of magic. Tony frowned and turned. He seemed to be very disquieted.

“What is the matter?”

“We’re about to find out.” The screen suddenly focused on Barton in a narrow corridor.

“Where is he?”

“That’ll be the vents. And where there is one, the other is not that far behind. Jay? Trap him where he is, block all outgoing signals. Show me where Natasha is.”

“Very well, sir.”

The engineer was obviously speaking out loud for Loki’s benefit. Soon, Barton found himself enclosed by lasers. Meanwhile, on another screen Jarvis was showing them the roof where Ms. Romanoff was leaping out of some sort of contraption onto the roof.

“That’s a helicopter.” The trickster frowned and turned to Tony. “You had a squinty face.”

“Your language has evolved in bizarre ways.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“You are not. Are you going to allow Ms. Romanoff to walk wherever she wants?”

“Got to find out what she’s looking for. Plus, she’s already paranoid; she knows it’s been too simple.” He smirked.

“And so you want to make use of an experienced assassin’s imagination by not doing anything.” The God of Mischief said with delight.

“Don’t need to sound so excited about it.”

“Too late to act puritanical now, it was your idea.”

“I just thought that someone should say it.”

“Jarvis would be in a better position to comment on that.” Loki mentioned.

“I think Mr. Lie-smith is overestimating my morals.”

“Well then we’re all deranged. That’s good to know.” The engineer announced. “There it is, she reached her mark. The primary servers for Jay. Where did she get the plans?”

“She will not be able to do harm to him, right?”

Tony blinked and then turned towards him. “Aw.” Loki crossed his arms. “Don’t pout. Jay is very impressed.”

“I am, Mr. Lie-smith.” Jarvis quipped.

“You two are a hilarious duo.” The trickster said. He also waved his hand in the pattern necessary for the clip spell. The engineer regarded him with something akin disdain. Loki smirked. He was not above petty vengeance.

 “No, Jay is pretty resilient. He wasn’t harmed even when the Malibu house was drowning in the ocean. He was out for a time, but he came back soon enough. Here’s what you need to know about Jarvis. He used to be impervious to all outsiders. So, everybody who wanted access to him would have to enter the building. Now, he is connected to me. And so his system security increased so much, it’s practically invulnerable. For now, at least.

On the screen Ms. Romanoff was getting increasingly frustrated tapping things on a screen. She stopped, clenched her jaw and typed something. Suddenly, red warnings were flashing on the screens.

“Son of a – ” Tony wiped a hand over his mouth.

“What is happening?”

“I just found out where they got the plans.” Loki just stared and waited. “From Pepper. She probably didn’t even realize Natasha had them. Of course, that makes absolutely no difference. She’s lost all clearance. It’s just shitty that it happened. Jay, open a channel.”

The trickster considered the engineer: he was furious with an obnoxious smirk worn for decoration. Loki settled back to follow the proceedings, but before he did, he shared a look with the billionaire to say that he was there if needed.

“Tash, lovely to see you drown in code. Any particular reason or is it a Thursday?”

“Stark. Heard from Barton lately?”

“He’d answer but he’s kinda cramped.”

“Listen, Stark. We all know that you’re going to die in those challenges.” Tony clenched his jaw. Ms. Potts was the only one who could have told her. “Just give us all the paperwork so we won’t have to waddle through all the legal stuff.”

“S.H.I.L.E.D. is at same time very pessimistic and very optimistic. What makes you think you are going to get any of my plans? Anyway, why break into my tower? Are you that desperate for information that you thought my security was slack?”

“You frightened the higher ups. We had no choice.”

“Well, they’re gonna have to wait until I’m dead just like the rest of the world. And as for you, Ms. Romanoff, Mr. Barton, I understand you have orders but I find myself extremely annoyed by your attempt to come into my place and get access to my A.I.. So you have ten seconds or you get fried. Buh bye.”

The lasers fell from around Mr. Barton, leaving him to roll backwards, fix two knives in the surface of the vent and catapult him out with five seconds to spare. Ms. Romanoff had launched herself out the nearest window and into the helicopter that was waiting for her. Behind both of them a cackle of electricity could be heard as the servers and the vent received the charge at the ten seconds mark.

“You are a man who keeps his promises.” Loki observed. The engineer just gave him a reproachful glance. What the look could not hide was a small glitter of enjoyment, which made his intelligent brown eyes so much more beautiful.

“Jarvis, call Pepper.” The trickster raised himself from his seat. “Don’t think of going anywhere, Loki. This won’t take long.” The God of Mischief nodded and stayed.

The woman’s image appeared on a screen.

“I am late for a board meeting, Tony, so you better talk fast.”

“I will. Earlier this morning intruders having insider knowledge of this building’s plans tried to gain access to Jarvis by typing in a password of a high-ranking person in the company.” Ms. Potts lifted her chin. She swallowed hard and blinked back tears in her eyes. “At which point I initiated contact. Ms. Romanoff seemed in possession of information concerning my demise, information that could only originate form one person. You, Ms. Potts, were the source of the leaks. I, therefore, revoke your clearance in the areas not designated to the company.”

The overly formal tone was cold. In fact, everything about his posture was foreign. He was quite obviously trying to distance himself from the issue.

“I understand, Mr. Stark. Will you be expecting my resignation?”

At Ms. Potts’ remark, Tony sighed. He brushed a hand over his forehead.

“That won’t be necessary, Pepper. I know a thing or two about trusting people I shouldn’t. With a lot more loss of life than you, I might add. But I can’t let you near what I’m working on now. I won’t be able to for several months. The work is just too sensitive. If… when I come back, we’ll have this talk again.”

Ms. Potts took a deep breath. Nodded.

“Tony. I’m sorry.”

The engineer lifted a shoulder in a half a shrug. “That would be all Ms. Potts.”

Tears flooded her eyes. “Goodbye, Mr. Stark.” The call interrupted.

“Hot chocolate with four shots of scotch?” The trickster asked.

Tony snorted and took the cups toward the kitchen.

“You know, right now, I really wouldn’t want to be Ms. Romanoff.”

At Loki’s inquiring look, he answered: “I don’t know yet. But I know it’s gonna be wicked. When I find out: me, you, popcorn and the footage?”

The trickster’s grin was more fitting to be worn by a shark. “Of course.”

  


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Alexandra, for being a wonderful beta! Please point any mistakes that you might see as they are my own. I am extremely grateful for all your comments, kudos and bookmarks! Don't have any additional warnings for this one.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
> 
> Update: Saturday.

Chapter 8

POV: Tony

Tony coordinated as three of his suits went zooming around arranging machines. After two more weeks, he had managed to finally find a combination that worked: a tree fractal – modeled after a Lichtenberg figure – in two semi spheres that when united their branches would align on the axis the pointer glides and their trunks would meet in a perfect place for Heimdall to unleash his magic via the sword. He had decided to make the actual sphere out of glass while the trees themselves would be made out of copper, which Loki said was surprisingly good at conducting spells. With all the measurements imputed in the server, all that was left was to actually build it.

Said trickster teleported in the workshop startling him into summoning his gauntlets and Mark XXII. The God of Mischief raised his arms.

“I am unarmed.”

“You’re never unarmed.” Tony said but ordered Mark XXII to help Mark XIV lift a sheet of metal. He let the gauntlets return to their place.

“I was asleep.” The engineer waited. He had no idea where Loki was going with this. “When I awoke the windows were several shades darker.”

“Yeah, there was a small drone from S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to find out more information. Jay told you that. The windows darkened to counteract the drone seeing through them. They have been doing that to different people on and off for weeks. Today was your day. Congrats.”

The trickster frowned. “You protected my privacy.”

“Jay did the protecting. And he does the same thing for Bruce or Thor.” He turned back his attention just as a huge wheel was tilting dangerously. Mark XVI soon came to help. “Did you want something? I’m kind of busy.”

“Simply to show my appreciation, if the matters stood as I assumed them. It does not happen often, as I usually have wards that prevent this very thing, but I had been tired from working with Dr. Banner on a permanency spell.”

“No need. I know how it is.”

The next sheet needed to be a little to the left, so he gave the two suits carrying it a gentle mental nudge in that direction. 

“Still. I am in your debt.”

“How about we just call it friendship?” He simply asked. They had been doing this dance for what seemed like forever. It was a game of give and take. It was offering trust and waiting to see if it explodes in your face.

Tony knew he’d have to trust someone else at some point. His circle of friends was dwindling considerably. He’d trusted people who had inherited it or had deserved it. What if he now chose to trust somebody who had yet to earn it? Somebody who, as his equal, had his share of brains, of issues and they wouldn’t have any reason to trust each other?

“We can.” The engineer raised an eyebrow knowing how the trickster liked to play with words. “We are friends, Tony.” He laughed, offering his hand.

The billionaire gripped his forearm, sensing Loki’s fingers curl around his. “Friends.”

*

“Sir, Dr. Banner’s calling.”

“Take a message. Is the drill working?” Tony asked, since he couldn’t see anything, not even with sharper senses. He wasn’t supposed to, since it was drilling at a microscopic level.

Footage from a camera enlarged so he could see the glass being drilled was all the answer Jarvis gave him.

“Thank you, Jay.”

“Always, sir.”

“Did Bruce leave a message?”

“He did. It was to get in touch with him. Calling now.”

“Hello, Tony.”

“Brucie, what’s burning?”

“You’ve got to call Loki and tell him that his permanency spell is showing cracks at a microscopic level. According to his instructions it was after three hundred years under the aging curse. He said he wanted to know right away.” Bruce explained. But there was still one small detail he seemed to be forgetting.

“I’m not a priest. No messages to gods from me.”

“C’mon Tony. He said he wasgoing to sleep. If I wake him, he’s going be annoying.”

“So what, I sacrifice myself so mean and green won’t show up? I like the big guy. He gets bad press, that’s all.” The engineer smiled cheekily. “Alright, I’ll do it. You owe me a home cooked meal though.”

“For which you’ll have to actually sit down.” Bruce grinned and ended the call. Tony made a face.

“Loki’s on the line, sir.”

“Tell me you didn’t wake him.”

“Not quite, sir.” Amusement was lining Jay’s words.

The engineer lifted his head and saw that Loki answered with video. He also saw that the god was in the tub. Drinking some chilled scotch, reading a book, relaxing in the foamy hot water. Naked.

“Okay.” The trickster smirked. Tony shook his head a little. “Bad news, Aphrodite.Apparently, your spell shows cracks at a microscopic level after three hundred years.”

The God of Mischief sighed. He slowly sank underwater. The engineer watched, entertained.

Suddenly, the trickster came up.

“What was that number you said?”

“If you wanted me to think you’d have waited to have this call until you were dressed.” Loki just gave him a look. “Infinity. What’s on your mind?”

“Until now I strengthened long lasting spells, with various results, none of them good enough. What if I do a time delay spell instead?”

“So, you’ll have the bridge disintegrate after infinity. But how will the spell know what you mean?”

“If I understand the concept, than so does the spell.”

That seemed like a good idea. “Worth a try, at least.” The engineer said.

“Would you let Dr. Banner know that I shall be right down?”

A drop of water was making its way down Loki’s neck while he was speaking. As soon as he was finished he gathered that drop with those long fingers and brought it to his lips. Tony swallowed.

“No. But that was a lovely show.” The trickster laughed while the billionaire grinned and closed the connection.

*

“Bored?” Tony asked raising his eyes from the screen.

“Simply wanted to see your progress.” Loki answered after he had casually entered the workshop, teleporting on the other side of the door.

“You could try pushing the door open. I promise your arm won’t fall off.”

“Do I truly have your word?” deadpanned the trickster.

The engineer smirked. “Sure thing. Did the spell work?”

“It has so far. Currently, it is holding through its third millennia.”

“How much longer are you gonna give it?”

“At the moment I am just examining out of curiosity, having already decided to do it. I suppose five millennia would be enough. After all, it will outlast the palace.”

“And now you’ve got nothing to do until the gems are done.”

Loki sighted. “Yes.”

“Usually, when people finish their work, they are happier then that.” The engineer sent the schematics for the new shield the police would be using to R&D. The drill was on schedule. So, his work for the foreseeable future was done. “But not you apparently.”

Tony smirked. He turned, grabbed the trickster by his leather lapels and kissed him. “I’ve finished work too. Say, have we spent enough time dancing around each other or is a little more time recommended?” He whispered, lips almost touching Loki’s.

The god sank a hand into Tony’s hair. “I am not yet convinced that this is a good idea.” He stole a kiss. Small, teasing, fiery. But he simply lifted his head when the engineer tried to deepen it.

“What could possibly go wrong?” They both laughed at that, their foreheads pressed together. “Come on, Loki. I’m not asking you to marry me here. Just, something easy. No responsibilities.” Tony said peppering the god with kisses. The corner of his lips. His jaw. His neck. “Something that’s ours.” This time the kiss was shared and so deep as to feel each other’s taste for days. The desire caught between them, undeniable for weeks now, finally coming to the surface.

“One responsibility: fidelity. I do not share. You do not share, either.” Loki said, kind of breathless, moving his head so he could inspect Tony with those impossibly green eyes of his.

The engineer met them and smiled. “Not a problem.”

They clashed again in an embrace. Lust and passion, all with a relaxed intensity, one that came with experience and with an understanding of what the other wants, what they were prepared to give.

“My place. Bigger bed.” The engineer breathed. The trickster complied and soon enough they were in the penthouse, undressing each other. Or trying to, at least. “Seriously?” Tony complained referring to the row of buckles.

Loki snapped his fingers and was left in just leather pants. The engineer would have commented on that, but was too busy attacking the newly reveled expanse of skin with kisses. Touches. Bites.

By the time they had actually managed to cross the small space to reach the bed, Tony had lost his shirt, Loki’s pants were open and they had both forgotten which way was up. That was probably why they both ended up half hanging off the bed.

“I think I need a circular bed.” Observed the engineer dryly.

“Why, does it come without edges?”

“Yup. Just circular… ends.”

The trickster raised an eyebrow, which was hilarious upside down. “Then I do not see how that might help.”

They both righted themselves and Tony was caught by the small ring of green surrounding the encompassing black of Loki’s eyes. There was lust there. Trust too. Above all, there was an invitation to take what he wanted because the trickster would stop him if it became too much. An invitation that he knew must be mirrored in his eyes. It was a result of how well they knew themselves to be able to even think of granting something like that. And a nod to their newly formed friendship that they made it.

It was still easy, even after they were both naked. Still a strange kind of relaxed, even after the temperature increased. Their touches were bold and confident. They sought and offered pleasure. Their trusts were expertly in sync. It was still a detached calm, even after the sweat started beading on their skin. After their bodies started the descent into orgasm. It was still green and brown, together.

*

The next morning he was woken up by Jarvis’s voice in his head:

“Sir, Ms. Potts is requesting your presence.”

Tony groaned. He buried his head deeper in between Loki’s flank and the bed. “Why now, Jay?” He responded mentally.

“She doesn’t know you have slept with the god that you were absolutely forbidden to have sex with, so probably something to do with the company. The cameras and microphones have picked up that she has some papers you need to sign.”

“Was that judgment I heard?”

“Actually, sir – for once – not at all.”

“As long as I have your approval, Jay, nothing else matters.” He sent Jarvis’ way and lifted himself up. Then he burst out laughing. The trickster was adorably sleepy, with a pillow mark on his face, looking at him with confusion as if he didn’t remember how he got into Tony’s bed.

He finally huffed. “Wanker.” Then he made himself comfortable shifting on the bed with cute kitten movements which didn’t help the engineer with either his laughing or the adorableness that was Loki still 80% asleep.

“I’m glad you looked those up. They suit you.” Tony shifted himself until he was looming over the trickster and waited until his eyes opened a sliver, then leaned down to kiss him. Hm, they both had minty breath. The wonders of having a lover with magical powers. “We good?”

Loki made a sort of inquisitive sound so the engineer kissed him again. “Better than good.” He said and reversed their positions. Tony grinned cheekily.

“Jay, tell Pepper I’ll be down in few hours.”

“Very well, sir.”

*

Several days later they were both asleep in the penthouse when Tony suddenly woke up. He took a deep breath. The engineer had had another nightmare. Again Pepper falling. Him reaching for somebody who just wasn’t there anymore. Only this time she didn’t miraculously come back.

The billionaire moved to get out of bed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore. Before he could, though, Loki’s arm caught his. He just opened his mouth to tell the trickster to go back to sleep, but was stopped by the god’s lips insistent on his. He felt himself being pushed into the bed.

Loki made eye contact making it clear for Tony that the trickster understood. So, he let himself relax. He stared at the god while he took his hand, kissed it softly. He continued to look at him as Loki sucked on the index finger while touching tenderly the underside of his forearm. As the trickster bit the pad of his thumb, licked at webbing between it and the index finger, pressed a hot kiss to his palm then a cat-like lick to his wrist, he had forgotten all about the nightmare. By the time he had reached the nipples Tony was not able to remember that there had happened something he didn’t want to recall in the first place. When he reached the navel he was a moaning, squirming, mess. A little puddle of pleasure.

Before he fell asleep again, miraculously in the span of a couple of hours, he whispered a ‘thank you’ to the god for which he received a contented hum.

Two days later the situation was reversed and Tony was more than happy to return the favor. They continued like this until the nightmares weren’t so bad anymore. Until the overwhelming need to leave sleep – the bed with their lover in it – disappeared. Until they were both comfortable enough with each other’s nightly terrors to just embrace the other and return to sleep.

*

POV: Loki

Loki was lost in thought when he felt Tony start to stir. He combed his fingers through his hair. It calmed him.

“I had the honor, once, of wielding Mjolnir.” He knew that the engineer was listening because he could feel his eyelashes moving on his abdomen. The trickster could not understand why Tony would always find himself draped across his waist. But that was a mystery for another day. He continued the story.

“The All-father was upset with Thor over something and so he gifted me the mighty hammer. With it I went into battle, unleashed it on Asgard’s enemies, then returned to Odin victorious.” Loki laughed bitterly. “It was then that I discovered that it was just a lesson for Thor. I was still young.” He said apologetically. Tony pressed a kiss into the skin next to his mouth. “I was never worthy enough to wield Mjolnir. Nevertheless, that moment when I could finally lift it – or I thought I could – was memorable.”

The engineer turned his head so he could regard him. “It’s okay. I’m not worthy enough, either.”

It should have annoyed Loki. Maybe it would have in another time, but as things stood, it did not. That was the difference between what he would have heard Tony was saying then and what he understood now. Presently, he knew that the engineer was telling him that he was not considered deserving enough, though even with that qualifier hanging over his head, he still managed to do plenty. The trickster agreed with that sentiment. It applied to him, as well.

*

“I’m afraid I’m not authorized to do what you want, Mr. Lie-smith.”

The trickster sighed. Tony laughed, paused what he was working on and approached Loki. “What do you want to do?”

“I have a memory which I wish to impart with Jarvis. It is proving to be difficult because I do not want to remember it or do a copy of it.”

“Because you know it’ll end up being a copy of something else.”

“Quite so.”

“What do you want Jay to do then?”

“I want him to create it as I describe it. Although, there seems to a problem. The moment I pronounce the words ‘golden gauntlet’ he says he is not allowed to do as I ask.”

“That would be because the suit is actually golden.” At Loki’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “The red is paint. The rest is the alloy that actually makes up the suit. Didn’t expect that, did you?”

“I thought your name was Man of Iron.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “That’s a press name. It’s an alloy.”

“Golden?”

“One that doesn’t have an icing problem. Jay, give him the gauntlet without the flight stabilizers.” The engineer seated himself on the nearest machine. “What was it?”

Loki regarded Tony for a little while. “Heat. I do not want to remember because it brings with it memories of dry, lifeless heat. It is not usually the first place where somebody’s mind goes upon hearing my resolve to forget.”

“Well, yours preferred heat, mine were fond of water. Not much of that in the desert. I don’t know why they would waste it on torturing somebody, but there you go.” He stood.

The trickster grabbed his forearm in the customary Asgardian salute. “Thank you for the illusion.”

The engineer nodded.

*

“Is it not customary to sleep first for this type of meal?” Loki asked.

“What time is it anyway?”

“It’s a quarter to six a.m., sir.”

“It’s even morning. That’s totally the time for breakfast. Jay, cartoons. Classics.”

The screen in the kitchen stated showing a brown mouse who running on two legs chased by a grey cat. It was very confusing, but if you ignored the inconsistencies, it was quite entertaining.

“This reminds me of the Warriors Three.”

Tony ceased what he was doing. “What exactly?”

The trickster smiled, seeing the anger hidden in the engineer’s expression. “The chase. And how the cat always seems to get blamed for everything, while the mouse laughs about it in his little home.”

“I personally like Jerry. He’s sneaky. Always was my go-to way of getting stuff done. Well, that and blow stuff up.”

“I am starting to see that is the mortal way.”

“Not Captain America's.”

“I suppose you do need a little bit of intelligence, first.”

The engineer laughed.

“If everybody were to take the back door, it wouldn’t be a back door anymore.”

“Though it does sting so when it happens to you.”

“Yeah. It does. Especially whenyou’ve been had for years.”

“You have had your own Odin and Frigga?”

“I had an asshole that pretended he cared. So, I don’t know about Odin. However, that’s a no on Frigga. You said that she cared about you enough not to call you out for the copies thing.”

“But she does remind you of somebody?”

“Yinsen. He was grieving about his family but he still took the time to save my life. Helped me dig myself out of that hole. He’s dead though.”

‘And so could Frigga’ was written in the silence. The trickster contemplated that.

“I cannot trust her anymore.”

“Who says you have to?” The engineer asked wryly. “You know what they say. The past is another country. They do things differently there.”

*

“You know, they called me the da Vinci of my time.” Loki had no idea who that was. “It’s a guy who was good at practically everything.”

“Silver-tongue.” The trickster answered.

“That sounds like a major come on. Merchant of Death.” Tony moved his eyebrows in a fashion that made him look ridiculous.

“God of Chaos.” Loki retorted with an obviously false air of arrogance.

They both laughed. 

“I am Iron Man.” The engineer finally said.

“God of Lies and Mischief. I do what I want.” The trickster responded.

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Alexandra, for being the awesomest beta to ever awesome! Please point out any mistakes to me as they are my own and I'd appreciate the chance to fix them. I am very grateful for all of you that left comments, kudos and bookmarked. Thank you!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
> 
> Update: Wednesday.

 

POV: Loki

Loki found Thor on the roof. The gems were grown and they were ready to return to Asgard. He knew what this was about. The trickster felt weary. Thus, they sat in silence.

Thor finally spoke. “You know there is a possibility that this will not go according to plan.”

“I know.”

The God of Thunder then exploded into movement, gesticulating wildly. “Then why do it? I know you care about him, but you did not use to. Why let it evolve? Especially when you clearly face the danger losing him. In a months’ time, no less.”

The trickster shook his head. “It could not be helped, brother.”

Thor then froze. “Truly?” He asked incredulously.

“I dare anyone to blame me for not having the forethought, considering they would be referring to my behavior.”

The elder brother nodded as if he just saw the magnitude of the event. “I have fallen into the same trap.”

“Not exactly.” Loki denied.

“Well, she is not obliged to face the challenges. She would not be killed if she does not pass said challenges. And I am not quite as jaded as you. Nonetheless, she is still mortal. By the end of this century, she shall be dead.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Surely you must know.” Loki nodded, but did not say anything. “I am thinking about talking to Lady Jane concerning the challenges.”

“You doubt your timing.” The trickster suggested.

“What if more time means she gets to learn more that would help her pass them?”

“What if it means that she will be too old for them?” Loki shook his head. “I do not think it your decision.”

“You have managed to confuse me, brother.”

The trickster swallowed a weary sigh. “I am simply saying that it should be her decision. Talk to her, Thor. Explain to her what is it that she faces if she decides to accept them: how many people have managed to pass them; what benefits await her in Asgard. Share with her your concerns. After that, leave her to make the decision. That is all you can do.”

“Caring for the mortal has changed your perspective, Loki.”

He forced a smile and hoped that the bitter taste he had in his mouth did not find a way onto his face. “Not quite. She possesses a genius with a rare quality. I hope that your time under the influence of that superb intelligence will be the longest it possibly can.”

Thor smiled dreamily. Loki thought he heard baby seals clapping. Dreadful influence, that man.

“Truly a genius with a rare quality?”

“Yes.” A genius limited by time.

He left Thor to gather his thoughts, then go speak with Dr. Foster and he teleported outside Tony’s workshop. Then teleported again inside.

“Why do you always do that?" The engineer asked without looking up from the screen.

“That would be because the one time I did not, I was threatened by a great iron armor.”

“You know what I meant.” responded Tony dryly.

Loki was adamant. “I refuse to push open that door.”

“What did the door ever do to you?”

The trickster reached Tony and snaked his arms around him. He leaned down until his forehead was rested on the back of the engineer’s head. “Not the door. You, on the other hand, look lovely when you are annoyed.”

“I should put butter on the floor at the entrance of the workshop. That way you’ll just fall in.”

“And to think that you ruined such a marvelous plan by telling it to me.”

Tony laughed. “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, because I am sure you’re actually paranoid. It will sit on your brain and stew. You’ll be forever careful.”

“Are you twirling your moustache?”

“That’s enough cartoons for you, mister.” Tony turned and took in Loki. “Oh, damn. You’d tell me if we were about to die in a fiery pit of doom.”

The trickster made a noncommittal noise. The engineer frowned. “That doesn’t sound very encouraging. You’re not funny, if that’s you were trying for.” They both stood in silence for a few moments. “I didn’t think you were.”

Tony turned. Took Loki’s arms and arranged them around his waist, then returned to work. The trickster’s mouth was burning with the desire to tell the engineer everything. To discuss his future plans just like any other subject. He promised himself, he shall wait to see what kind of truth the events in Asgard produce and then make a decision. It scared Loki, how much he wished for a good outcome.

The trickster sighed. He embraced Tony harder.

“Jay, let’s have music in here.” The engineer said, but did not move in any way that would dislodge Loki. The trickster, for his part, was just bathing in the moment.

*

POV: Tony

Tony sighed. “Why are we going again?”

“They said that there were matters to be discussed.” Bruce calmly explained.

“Uh. Well, anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something.” The engineer said shifting gears.

Bruce’s expression became closed off. He knew.

“You are the sole heir of my fortune and my company. On the condition you will keep Pepper in an executive position, except in the case of proven malice on her part. You’ll have fewer cars – Rhodey, Happy –, fewer millions – people, causes – and one less mansion, since I left that one to the Avengers. Besides that you’ll have pretty much everything and the legal protection that comes with that.”

The doctor was shocked. The corner of Tony’s lips turned up.

“Don’t do that. You look like him when you do that. Stop it.”

The engineer laughed. “Of course, in return you’ve got to do me a favor.” Bruce was silent so he continued. “You’ve got to take care of my robots and of Jarvis.”

“What if they just… choose not to go on?”

“That’s their choice. But if they happen to want to keep going even after I’m dead, then you’ve got to be there for them.”

Bruce nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

Tony just gave him a grin, shifted gears and pressed the gas pedal.

*

“You are here damned early.” 

Tony just winked at Fury and made his way to the back of the room with Bruce. “We are gathered here today to do what?”

“To discuss your clearance level.” declared Ms. Rushman. She was sporting a nasty cut on her forehead and a bruised lip.

“That’s what the drone was trying to do. Keep us all under observation while they assess my clearance level. See, Bruce? It wasn’t spying for information.”

“That’s your own fault for hiding important facts.” The assassin said.

Tony grinned while Bruce just sighed and whispered. “You’re doing it again.” The engineer ignored him.

“If I have important information that I’m entitled to and you, as an institution, are not because it’s not any of your business yet, doesn’t that mean that I have a higher security clearance than you?” Tony tried beating them with logic. Naturally, it could also slide off them, logic and S.H.I.E.L.D. did not always see eye to eye.

There was silence in the room as everyone seemed to mull that over.

“Well, he has a point.” Agent admitted. “Though that security clearance is not offered by us.”

“Still higher.”

“You are compromised.” Ms. Rushman pronunced. 

“According to your evaluation I entered this team while being compromised.”

“We know about your relationship with Loki.” At Tony’s raised eyebrow, she went on. “Your friendship with him. About how you two collaborate to sign papers.”

“Okay, firstly. That information is outdated. Tell me, what did Pepper do to get you that pissed off, is it connected with why you look like you went nine rounds with the wall and is there footage? Secondly, I’m sleeping with him. I still don’t see the problem.”

Bruce laughed.

“You know, you don’t look like it, but your sense of humor is just as twisted.” Barton stated.

“You really don’t see the problem? Because I’m sure we can get somebody to give you a prescription.” Agent got them back on track.

“Yeah, I don’t see the problem. Considering the fact that you practically said I was compromised going in and the fact that I’m not one of your agents, nor am I doing anything wrong, you basically have no case.”

Fury was not impressed. “Loki almost offed you and the people of New York.”

“And now he’s helping us. Keep up.”

“We can’t approve.” tried an earnest Captain America.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Who’s asking?”

The engineer looked around the table. “Are we done here?”

Barton was surprisingly somber. “When are you leaving?”

“Soon.”

There was another moment of silence in the conference room. Barton and Fury nodded, while Agent wished him good luck.

“All affairs in order?” The assassin asks.

“Yeah. Say hi to your new resident billionaire.” He said and pointed to Bruce.

The spy nodded, then added: “Good luck.”

“See you when you get back. We’ll go for dinner again.” Tony remembered Cap’s speech when a certain plane went down. Look who couldn’t handle goodbyes. But then again he wasn’t much better as he wasn’t planning on announcing anybody when they were leaving.

*

When he returned to the tower Jane Foster was waiting with the two gods.

“Pleasure to meet you Dr. Foster.” He said confused, but hiding it pretty well.

“Dr. Foster is going to try her hand at the challenges.” Loki, of course, saw right through him.

“Jane, please.” She insisted.

“Tony.” The engineer replied. “Who are we waiting for?”

“You. And now, Heimdall.” The trickster answered while pressing his left shoulder to Tony’s right.

Shortly, Heimdall appeared with the Tesseract. He took the opportunity to exchange thoughts with Jarvis, the last in what would hopefully be just a long time.

“Take care of the kids while I’m gone, Jay. Tell them goodbye.”

“Certainly, sir.” A shadow of sadness could be felt over the words, but Jarvis was still Jarvis and he had kept his cool in situations worse than this one.

“See you soon, buddy.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you my beta, Alexandra! As always, if see any mistakes, please let me know. And thank you very much for the kudos, comments and bookmarks. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
> 
> Update: Wednesday.

Chapter 10

POV: Tony

Tony’s first look at Asgard left him unimpressed. It was too much, a waste even by his standards. Gold on the walls, gold on the roofs, gold on the whole damn place. Except the windows and the streets. Which were crystal. And the fucking bridge with the stupidest name he had ever heard. Which was made of gems. Oh, man.

From where they appeared, on the balcony of the central palace, it was all laid out in front of him and all he could feel was disgust. They needed a new architect, because the one they currently had made them look like a bunch of stuck ups that had yet to learn than less meant more. Jane, on the hand, seemed pretty taken by the whole opulence of the place. Well, at least one of them was.

“Beautiful, is it not?” a voice who could only be Odin said.

“Not everyone appears to think so,” observed Heimdall staring at him with unnerving golden eyes. He apparently had a problem with Loki, which translated into not liking Tony very much, either.

“Just missing home.” The engineer said calmly. The God of Mischief seemed to agree with his earlier sentiments, though he did a good job of hiding it.

“Of course, who could ever deny the beauty of Asgard?” Odin declared, finally coming into view. “Loki, I see you have returned to us that which we lost.”

Tony rolled his eyes internally but still fell to his knee in greeting. As he rose, he saw pleasure in Odin’s face. Oh great, the god had a superiority complex. Jane did a little courtesy. Behind the All-father came a woman who could only be Frigga. For her, he again fell to his knee, but this time with his right forearm across his chest.

“Your majesty,” he greeted and remained kneeling.

Frigga let out a delicate laugh. “Lady or Frigga will do, Man of Iron. No need for such propriety, I hear you are to be one of us.” She touched Tony on the shoulder as a signal to rise.

“Only if you call me Tony,” he said charmingly.

 The engineer was met with Thor’s happy face, proving once and for all that the man was clueless. Loki, as he expected, seemed amused without any muscle on his face actually moving. Odin was wearing a thoughtful expression as if he had figured out he had been slighted, but couldn’t quite believe it. It’s gonna take some time.

“Of course,” she continued “there can be no titles inside the family. I hear that Lady Foster will try and face the challenges for the honor of being Thor’s future wife.”

Oh, that’s right. Jane was meeting the in-laws, which would be the reason why she was so different from what he had been led to believe. If you were technical about it, so was he, but those were the joys of estranged parents.

He heard Odin murmur in a weird cadence so he assumed the All-father was saying a spell that he didn’t want the mere mortals to hear. To be specific, he didn’t want the mere mortal to hear, because there was only one way he’s going to leave Asgard alive and that was as a god.

Jane’s sound of astonishment was what drew the engineer’s attention to the Bifrost that now proudly glittered in the afternoon light. Tony tilted his head a little to see how it all fit.

“It works?” he asked.

“Yes, it does.”

“How can you tell?”

Odin chuckled fatherly. “Gods have a way of knowing these things.”

It felt patronizing. It certainly sounded pretentious. But he let it go. It was Afghanistan all over again, where his play was to smile and be the good cooperative mortal turned god, until it was time to make his move. He met Loki’s raised eyebrow with silence and the trickster understood. Jane, however, had just become herself again.

“Of course, mortals built it, but when it comes to watching your invention at work, Tony, it’s 'gods have a way of knowing these things.'”

Thor looked like he might interrupt her, but apparently changed his mind and settled back with a neutral expression on his face. The god did not know the meaning of a poker face, probably literally, so the whole blankness thing was just disturbing.

“Just as long as they don’t call tech support when they get stuck in Yggdarsil’s branches,” Tony shrugged.

Dr. Foster laughed but nobody else caught the reference. They weren’t supposed to. He could see a slight frown on Frigga’s face, that was telling of who taught Loki how to observe people. The trickster kept his expression closed off, with only a glimmer of admiration shining through in his eyes.

“Lady Jane will find accommodations in Thor’s apartments for the foreseeable future,” Frigga said, obviously willing to move from the subject of Odin’s trust issues. “While Mr. Tony will find his temporary home in the guest apartments that are equipped for foreign dignitaries.”

“Just Tony,” he grinned boyishly.

“That will not be necessary,” Loki announced.

Frigga was confused. “Where would you have him stay, then?”

“Tony is a dear friend. He is welcome to stay in my apartments.” The engineer took a step towards the trickster as his answer.

Odin suddenly looked at Tony with interest. Frigga’s eyes widened and her eyebrows were slightly lifted, but still managed to hold on to her composure. “Very well, then.”

*

Thankfully, Loki’s part of the castle was more concerned with functionality than whatever passed as design on Asgard. There were libraries in every room filled with all kinds of books in different languages. When he browsed through one, the words seemed to come into focus and dance from its pages. Considering the fact that neither Loki, nor Thor, mentioned any rumba proficient books, it seemed that the gods were right: magic and technology were the same thing. Which meant that Extremis was allowing him to see spells that were attached to objects like he would the general purpose of a machine. Cool.

“There are three bedrooms, here. You may choose whichever you like. Or you could elect to stay with me, in the master bedroom.”

“Is that a rhetorical question?” Tony smirked. “Does it have anything to do with why the people looking amazed back there?”

“The only other person who has used these rooms is Hel. I disturbed Sigyn with my schedule, which did not always match those of regular Aesir, so we did not share the same wing as is customary.”

The engineer understood. “That’s why I had the workshop on another floor. What’s with all the gold?”

“It is Asgardian gold. The only thing it has in common with your gold is the perceived value of the metal. The near indestructibility is its main property, though there are others. The closest counterpart I have seen on Earth is the shield Captain America wields.”

“I suppose that makes a little more sense.”

“You find it wasteful.” Loki smiled. “Which is a surprising thing in and of itself.”

“I know, right?”

 “It is rather lavish. The All-father takes the safety of Aesir very seriously, sparing no expense. Even if that means obtaining the material through some less then forthcoming methods.”

“Well, he is the king. I guess I can’t blame him for wanting to keep his people safe. Though every building seems a bit much,” Tony admitted. “Why the crystal in the streets?”

“Its only purpose, I am afraid, is to look pretty.”

*

“You have all the right answers, Tony,” Frigga said, while seating herself.

She was referring to the fact that they had been at the banquet for about two hours and he was getting a lot of attention. They had been presented, then it had started. Most gods were feeling pity for him, having been on the receiving end of one Loki’s plans themselves, and were sure the trickster was having him on, seducing him for one reason or another until he was dead. To those Aesir, he made sure to sound suspicious, verging on angry like he had just realized he’d been had. Other gods, like Fandral, sneered at him, because he had managed to snatch the trickster. Those Aesir, he knew from his days as a playboy, were best avoided.

He did step out of his role as the passive victim once. To get rid of Sigyn. It wasn’t even personal, she was just trying to be friendly or something while he felt too much like he was in a certain cave. It made him paranoid. So, he took an apple off a platter on the table displacing another one, made sure to time it just right for a servant to pass, he slipped on the apple, bumped into her and made her spill wine on her dress. She had to leave the banquet early.

“All the right answers?”

Frigga smiled a politician’s smile, “I have raised Loki.”

“And what a fine job you did.”

“You are the same.”

“That’s quite the compliment,” Tony said, his face carefully controlled.

“Do not hurt him, Mr. Stark.”

“Like you have? No, I don’t think I will. Thanks for the warning, though.”

They glared at each other. Then Frigga nodded to acknowledge his point, which in turn made him nod to accept the warning.

 He did manage to see something weird from between gods who had come to gawk at the new offering in Loki’s war: the trickster nodding to a blond woman. A sea green eyed goddess who was more his type of woman than any he had seen so far on Asgard. There was something here. Time to find out. “Hey, how does everyone know?”

“Since you are not a twelve-year old girl, but a hero that Thor tells stories about, they assumed.”

“Revenge on Thor would be the perfect reason for this whole thing between us.” The engineer wanted to say ‘for seducing me’, but he didn’t think he could say it without bursting out laughing.

“Do we need to discuss this matter?” The trickster was frowning and looking at him as if he had grown another head.

“I think we do. In privacy.”

 That made the perfect ending for the victim act, successfully making everyone under-evaluate him. He figured that if the gods were to think him stupider than he really was, his challenges would be just very, very hard and not straight out impossible. Plus, he might actually find out more from Loki.

The God of Mischief stated talking as soon as they entered the room.

“I understood it was your plan to appear naïve, although it completely escapes me how you could have believed all those condescending Aesir. In fact, I thought it was quite the opposite. I especially enjoyed your making Sigyn spill her drink. Though I suppose weariness can be an answer,” The trickster said confused, but thoughtful like he was on the verge of solving a problem.

“You’ve got wards so no one can eavesdrop?” When Loki nodded, he asked, “Who was that blond goddess you were nodding to earlier?”

“Amora. The  Enchantress. She has had her eyes set on Thor for –” The trickster stopped abruptly. Then he pulled an almost spectacular grumpy face. Tony was almost expecting him to slap his forehead.

The engineer wanted to stop at a smirk and play it smooth, but he couldn’t stop himself. Soon he was laughing, making Loki roll his eyes and say, “Well, you did wait until we were alone. You asked me, not anyone else. And I was foolish enough to answer. I have no reason to be upset and yet, I feel a strong urge to strangle you.”

Tony came close enough to kiss him, which he did. He didn’t back up again. “C’mon. I wanted to find out. You didn’t want to tell. So, I worked it out, a part at least. She was your partner. That’s why you were upset the other day, because this plan of yours ends badly for somebody you care about, Thor. I haven’t figured it all out, yet, but it’s more than I had.”

Loki shook his head exasperated. Then he paused for a second. “Why do you not give credence these rumors? They sound ludicrous to me, but they cannot sound the same to you.”

“What? That you have this master plan of killing me, so you seduce me in the meantime, all so Thor could feel humiliated. Please. Firstly, you actually have bigger and better things to do than piss off Thor. Secondly, you did actually make me a pawn in your chess game, so that’s not news to me. Thirdly, the seduction? More of a mutual thing.”

“I shall never understand Midgardians,” Loki declared with an underlining relief.

“I, on the hand, know that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Thor, if it could be avoided.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Brothers in arms,” Tony smirked.

“Of course you learned about that, it was your tower.”

“You’d never respect me if I didn’t.”

  *

The next day they gathered outside in a circle. It was like a picnic party. Only it became really creepy when you thought that Jane’s and Thor’s lives would never be the same after these challenges. It was downright morbid when you thought that Tony’s life would end if he failed them. He didn’t know what Loki would do if that happened, to be honest. Hopefully, none of the giggling gods would have the opportunity to find out.

The circle had the dimensions of a tennis court, with Aesir seated on the outside on some kind of pillows. In front of them were low tables with drinks, pastries, fruits, practically everything a god could wish for when watching someone fight for his life. Or maybe he was just jaded.

The royal family, which somehow included him, was seated on a raised platform. Odin and Frigga were a little higher than their sons, who were on a level with their significant others. In Thor’s case it was Jane, though she now stood in front of them ready for her first challenge. He was the one standing next to Loki, meaning he got stared daggers for it. Especially by the God of Thunder’s arrogant blond friend, Fandral. “You were missed, Loki. Sorely,” Tony said dryly.

The trickster turned to him and frowned. Tony glanced at Fandral, then looked meaningfully at the God of Mischief. Loki rolled his eyes. That’s when Odin announced the challenge: to draw.

The engineer didn’t understand and, confused, angled himself toward Loki to see his reaction. It all made sense then, when all the trickster did was give a little huff. He now understood the entirety of the god’s plan. He didn’t know if he made some sort of noise, or if it was just Loki’s uncanny ability to read him, but the god smiled at him with approval.

“Father, I have told you. My dear Jane is a scholar,” Thor spoke up.

“There are two types of challenges, my son. The ones for warriors and the ones for wives. There are no other trials to be had.”

“Still. You have the power to choose said challenges so they illustrate the knowledge the candidate possesses,” Thor insisted. Tony’s respect for Thor grew. So did, he could see, Loki’s.

“Are you asking me to disregard the laws of Asgard?”

“No, I am simply appealing for the fairness with which I am accustomed to from you.”

“The laws of Asgard have led me well so far. The challenge is to draw or she returns to Midgard, trails failed. Your decision,” Odin pronounced. Frigga’s fingers turned white while she clutched on the edge of her pillow-chair.

Thor shook his head. “No, father, it is not. Jane?”

The goddesses’ approval of that sentence proved to the engineer that Loki was right, as usual.

“Yes,” She answered. “I will go through with them. Tony?”

His head snapped up then tilted in question. She was obviously trying to ask him something, but he had no idea what. He thought about it for a second, reached the conclusion that she didn’t know anything about stuff that he might use, shrugged and mouthed ‘anything’. He noticed dimly that there was so much joy reflected on Thor’s face that it should really be illegal to be so grateful to somebody.

In the end, she borrowed his fractal idea, in that she took a famous type of fractal and redesigned it. She started with numbers and that grew into lines that grew into a pattern that resembled ice on a window. It actually ended up being sort of beautiful.

The challenge was declared passed by a smiling Frigga.

* 

Loki said dryly, “You managed to solve it all, did you not?”

“I think I’ve got it all down. Let’s see. You call Amora in prison, we all know you have the resources to go around the whole backfire thing and you tell her to help you in return for Jane not passing her challenges.” Tony said doubtfully.

“I promised I would remove Jane Foster from her way, which she took to mean I would kill her.”

The engineer laughed and shook his head. “You needed to talk to Odin, the plan did that. You also needed to make sure that Thor’s future position as a king was going to have supporters. How would you do that? You would notice that half of Asgard’s population is treated like shit and you would do whatever possible to show that to Thor. And we all know how you like to do that. You make him run smack into the problem. Jane Foster’s challenges. You must’ve known what kind of challenges she would receive. What do women do here anyway?”

“They are caretakers, mostly.” Loki’s tone implied his exasperation. “Generous hosts, artists of many kinds. There are a few who have managed to break the wall in several places. Sif, for example, is a warrior maiden. Amora has created a nook for herself with the sorcerers. Even Frigga, through delicacy and diplomacy, is quite the esteemed woman.”

“It’s like the women on Earth in Jane Austen’s time.” He paused, thinking. “Oh damn, Frigga is Jane Austen.”

The trickster just gave him a puzzled expression.

Tony explained, “A witty author, back when women weren’t authors. She published as ‘a gentleman’. Very heavy on the dry humor and irony. You’d love it. Wait. They have this ancient view on what a woman should be, but two guys together are okay?”

“Ordinarily, no. However, I am a sorcerer.”

Tony squinted his eyes in thought. “I don’t follow.”

“I, as opposed to most other sorcerers, have two specializations. Transporter spells and –”    

“Shape sifting spells. Oh. Oh no.” The engineer didn’t know if he should laugh or not. “You can shape shift into a woman.” Then he had a worrying thought. “Does that mean that people expect you to clean or whatever? Not that you’d do what people anticipate.”

The trickster smiled. “Thank you for the concern, Tony. Nonetheless, no, I will not be expected to act like a goddess. It is just for the piece of mind of some Aesir.”

“I guess that means I’m a lucky man. Funny. I knew that already considering I can count you as a friend.” He loved seeing the amusement swirl in the twin green pools. “So, you realized that Jane would fail the pride and prejudice challenges, which would be why you were sad for Thor.”

Loki laughed bitterly. “I encouraged him to talk to her about facing the challenges at the same time as you.”

“With that you accomplished two goals: you made him learn to respect her decision making skills and have more time together since I don’t think she would learn to play the harp at any point.”

“Still. She learned how to draw with only an idea she grasped out of thin air.”

“She knew how to draw.” Tony declared. “At least the basics of technical drawing which is what she did. It was part her job as an astrophysicist to create a model, through equations mostly, of how things work in space. Sometimes drawing is required. At least in college.”

“Engineers work with models, according to your theory you know how to draw as well.”

“Yes, but I’m crap at it. That’s why I built myself computers to take care of that for me. Anyway, you recognized that chance of making Thor so mad as to take up women’s rights. With that he’ll be able to have the goddesses’ support, and whatever husbands listen to them. While you’re always gonna have problems between new wave and traditional, they will both be on your brother’s side, because he’s the one that gave them rights.”

Loki grinned, “Exactly.”

“What’s going to happen to you and your plan if Jane passes the challenges?”

“I do not think it likely. The other challenges, I suspect, shall be about skills much less useful for Midgardians. However, it will just delay me a bit. Have her travel a lot, since everybody here just does not understand her. Remain on Midgard while her friends live the time they have left. I never promised Amora that Dr. Foster shall be forever out of her way,” Loki said airly. Tony snickered. “Meanwhile, it will give Thor enough time to become enraged with the bad mouthing his future wife earns for her ways and advocate for equality.”

“How is he going to hear the gossip?”

“Oh, these things always find their way into the wrong ears.” The trickster smirked.

“Got to hand it to you, Loki, this plan is brilliant. If you only think about all the contingencies it has. All the goals it accomplishes. A true masterpiece.”

 The god seemed to take him in for a few moments. “Yes. Though as usual, I forget some insignificant detail which evolves into the most important part for me.”

“You haven’t forgotten anything. I can take care of myself.” Tony walked into the circle of Loki’s arms.

“That is the only reason why you have not been spirited away.”

*

The second challenge was timed at one hour. It featured a giant wooden… thing.

“What is that?”

“A loom,” Frigga answered.

“Okay.” Tony felt even more confused than before. “What does it do?”

Frigga looked at him as if he has grown another head. “One uses it to weave cloth. Every Asgardian wife must know how to use the loom. Not for the fabrication of the daily attire, of course. But she is expected to create treasures that her husband will want keep forever.”

“I believe that Tony is filled with such puzzlement because technology such as this is antiquated on Midgard,” Loki interrupted.

His mother looked aghast. “Truly?” She turned to watch Jane trying to figure out how to work the thing.

The engineer shook his head. He took a gulp out of the heated mead they had just brought to the table so he wouldn’t say anything. It was so hot he could feel as his tongue and his throat burned. He was afraid that his eyes could be seen turning that weird orange color that meant that Extremis was working its magic, therefore he closed them. But Tony couldn’t do anything about how his fingers were melting the goblet. Luckily, it was over in a matter of seconds. To an outsider he would have looked as if he was just appreciating the flavor.

Just as he was putting it down and thinking of ways he might explain what happened, he heard somebody spit out his drink to his left. He turned to look, along with about every other god, except Thor. Jane had managed to make something small and quick run across the thing. Yay for her. Anyway, the god who had the unfortunate incident with his mead was Fandral, who had probably taken a big gulp of the too hot liquid when he saw the engineer touching it. Tony swallowed his laughter.

He turned back to Jane and his own goblet when he saw there were no fingers molded into the metal. The engineer then glanced at Loki, who had an alarmed look in his eyes. Tony shrugged sheepishly. The trickster glared at him, then was distracted by Dr. Foster. Apparently, she had managed to work the machine.

The challenge was, in the end, unfortunately failed. Apparently, there were issues with the pattern. The pattern! Okay, so there were holes in it. But, there was actually cloth that had been produced. Which was something he wasn’t willing to bet on. He thought he now understood what Loki had meant when he said she was unlikely to pass them. Tony hoped the trickster was right about him too.

In other news, Thor was definitely not happy.

*

“Heat is the disadvantage for healing by Extremis.” The trickster stated.

Tony froze where he had entered the room before Loki. He then reviewed in his head what the trickster had said and relaxed. Even smirked. The engineer raised an eyebrow inviting the god to continue.

Loki rolled his eyes. “Everything has a benefit and a detriment. Fandral certainly did not react like that mead was at good drinking temperature.” His lips twitched up. “And I had to shape shift the mold of your fingers back to the original goblet.”

“Thank you for that, by the way.” The trickster nodded to accept the gratitude. Tony went on. “You’ve now discovered the ace up my sleeve for the challenges. I hope I won’t have to use it.”

“Nevertheless, I am thankful that you have one advantage that nobody told stories about, because I am starting to think that Odin is cheating.”

“Thor told stories about where we buy our clothes?” Tony asked doubtfully. Loki just looked troubled.

“I am not sure about that, as I was not here, and I certainly cannot ask without raising suspicions. However, I know that it was a point which had amazed Thor greatly. The giant bazaars where you could get your hands on everything. Then Dr. Foster has to face a challenge regarding a custom which is naught but tradition, even in Asgard. Young goddesses train at the loom for several months before marriage, then forget all about it. I have never seen Frigga work at it, probably because she was already married by the time I was here. Still, it was a challenge today.”

“But I thought Odin adores Thor?”

Loki inclined his head. “He does to a point. Every time my brother disobeys the laws of Asgard, however, he is harshly punished.”

“So you think that when Thor spoke up for Jane, Odin considered it some kind rule ignoring or breaking.” The trickster nodded, a worried frown on his face. “And you are afraid that if Dr. Foster doesn’t pass challenges, he’s gonna make my challenges impossible to pass?”

“Yes. He shall take the inspiration from Thor’s stories and ensure that there a silver lining for him. Still. It is just a theory, one that I hope will be proven wrong.”

Tony smiled bitterly. “You don’t think it will.”

“No, I do not.”

*

The third challenge is to serve tea. Tony remembered the famous story about Thor’s ‘another!’ and closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw the trickster looking at him. He nodded to show the theory was correct, as far as he was able to verify. Loki seemed to take the bad news between a blink and another. The engineer noted, though, that he had trouble trying to swallow the grape he had just eaten.

It didn’t surprise anyone that Dr. Foster failed the challenge considering the fact that no one thought she knew the first thing about tea drinking since she touched that pot. But she straightened, raised her chin. The storm clouds were gathering. She mouthed ‘sorry’ to Thor. Lighting flashed. Thunder cracked. Jane kept going until she finished serving the traditional hot drink.

When Frigga finally announced the challenge failed it was as if a hurricane had fallen over Asgard. Every god there was cowering in fear. Aside from the royal family who stood up straight in the rain, Tony included, three more Aesir were not flinching from the lightening and the thunder: Amora who had her sorcery wrapped around her in a sea green shield; Sif who had trust in her own power and let that faith shroud her; and Jane who trusted Thor to not hurt her. Even the Warriors Three were huddled together.

As the God of Thunder embraced his mortal lover, Tony lifted himself from the table. His life had just become more difficult. He saw himself covered in an emerald green shield and when he looked at Loki, he just received a shrug. The engineer rolled his eyes.

“Man of Iron,” he stopped and turned towards Thor. “I wish you the best of luck.” The implied ‘as my Jane did not have’ was aimed at his father. Jane just nodded, fire burning in her eyes.

“Thank you,” he replied confidently. 

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  



	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, my precious beta, Alexandra! As always, please point out any mistakes you may see as they are entirely mine and I'd really appreciate it. Thanks loads to all of you who left comments, kudos or bookmarked. Also, the warning for violence applies in this chapter with an additional trigger warning for loss of limb. It's all going to end okay, though, don't worry. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
> 
> Update: Wednesday.

 

POV: Loki

Loki was not doing well. He was in bed, in the same place as he had lain the night before. And, to be truthful, even as he had followed every movement of Tony’s body, he still could not explain how the engineer had managed, yet again, to drape himself over the trickster’s waist. He concluded that was simply Tony’s place and left it at that.

That sent a pang of guilt through him. It was almost hilarious except for how it was not amusing at all. He always managed to overlook the one detail that winded up being vital for his interests. His plans were successful for other people, but they had the disadvantage of rebounding on their creator. That was the detriment of being a trickster: he was capable of building great traps, but he always got caught in them himself at some point or another.

Now he had concocted a marvelous plan, only for that same design to require him to put in harm’s way one of the only persons he wished to protect. The man who almost had his trust, truly and completely, could be dead in three days’ time and Loki would have nobody to blame, but himself.

“Are you about to tell me that my blood is delicious?” Tony asked sleepily.

Loki frowned. “No.”

“Well, you can bet your ass I’m not getting up yet so stop with the staring. Or if you do, you can at least compliment me on my lamb-like qualities.”

The trickster did not understand what he was referring to, but he seemed to be quoting something. So he simply huffed. Then sunk his hand into Tony’s hair. “I apologize.”

The engineer froze in the middle of smirking. He stopped, amazed. “You mean that.”

“I do.”

“What exactly are you apologizing for?”

“I do not know. Perhaps for stealing the choice of whether to become a god or not. Possibly for placing you in harm’s way. Could be for both. I do not have that much experience with being apologetic.”

Tony smiled. “I think it’s one those situations when it’s the thought the counts.” He grinned. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t know either. Though I will say this: there’s no need to apologize. You did what you had to. I’ll do what I have to. And then, we’ll see. Still think I could pass the challenges?”

Loki dipped his head so he could kiss him. “Now more than ever. If there is anyone who could face them and win, then that person is you.”

*

Since it was a lot easier to deal with the consequences of Thor’s wrath, than with the thing itself, the ceremonial plaza now featured a tent. It was, like the mortals called it, monsoon season.

Odin took whatever advantages Tony might have managed to gain when eating the apple, then he pronounced that as a warrior, the engineer should be able to fight. So he shall have a duel with one of the Warriors Three. It was also obviously tied with the fact that in all of Thor’s stories, the engineer had his armor and did not use any conventional weapon.

When Fandral volunteered, Tony turned to him. He received a look that simply said ‘this is your fault’. The trickster’s eyes widened and he shrugged a shoulder. That was his fault entirely.

The blond warrior’s weapons of choice were the double blades. Fortunately, Tony had some basic knowledge of this weaponry, since he helped design better versions of it for Ms. Romanoff, or else he might have had problems even holding them correctly. A fact that came as a great surprise for Odin, he could tell. It required a great deal of time to achieve mastery with the double swords, time the engineer had not been willing to spend in this pursuit. The handsomest of the Warriors Three, however, had been consumed with the need to learn all that he could about them. The difference in experience was clearly illustrated in this as well as it would in any other area. 

Naturally, the Midgardian was on the defensive, mostly eluding the god’s swipes where he could and parrying them where he could not. The engineer was obviously waiting for the right time to strike. He had managed to escape from several situations which served to sow anxiety in Loki’s soul, if they did not in his stance. Nevertheless, a blow managed to land and severed the lower half of Tony’s leg with it.

“Fandral!” was shouted by an outraged Thor, thus giving Tony some extra time in which he could gather his thoughts. Loki made a mental note to produce a slow aging potion for Jane.

The trickster continued to follow the battle calmly, while he feverishly struggled to remember what Tony had said about the limits of Extremis. He did not mention much, which Loki took to mean that the engineer saw it as a real asset for the future. The god hoped that it would be enough for what just happened.

Then the engineer started to flicker, like he was made out of embers, a peculiar flame in his brown eyes. That was when his leg started growing back, bit by bit, the skin, the meat, the bone reappeared from naught. The blond god’s attention was again on the mortal. He tried to keep his cool, but you could see how panicked he really was by the widening of his eyes.

Loki guessed he now knew exactly how hot his friend and lover actually ran. Especially when the embers burned bright enough to flame when Tony captured Fandral’s swords with his hands. First the left, then the right. Then the engineer took a deep breath and released a stream of fire on the arrogant god. He fell, clutching himself where the heat blistered his skin.

The Aesir were struck into silence. Except Loki, who was amused by the turn of events. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. The Frost Giant and the burning mortal, who would have guessed?

Tony winced.

“What seems to be the matter?” Loki asked.

“I need a boot. These stones are murder, don’t know how the Other Guy made it so long without shoes. Maybe that’s why he’s angry all the time.”

Loki snorted. He conjured the requested footwear.  “If it were so, he would have healed by now, Tony.” He let warmth color the words.

“You don’t know. Maybe it’s just the memory now,” the engineer answered with a small devilish smile and the same warmth.

Then started the gods gossiping, interrupting the shocked silence.

“Whooohooo, Tony!” Dr. Foster gave a shout.

Sif and what remained of the Warriors Three rushed towards Fandral, who by now had managed to extinguish himself. Idiots.

“Mortals were not blessed with such a keen gift for healing last time I looked upon them,” Odin commented.

Dr. Foster responded before he did. “Obviously, this mortal is.”

Tony chuckled, which redirected Loki’s attention to Fandral. “Nobody told me I would fight a dragon. You do not choose the double swords when fighting a dragon. You… In fact it is better not to fight a dragon. Better to leave him be. No dragon ever hurt anybody who left him alone. Good dragon.” The burned god was plainly delirious with what seemed to be a colossal amount of pain. The trickster laughed when he saw the amused way in which the engineer was biting his lip.

Odin sighed. He glimpsed at Fandral’s form prattling away about dragons and admitted the challenge as passed.

*

“You know what I am?” asked Loki.

“A… You know what, I think that’s a trick question.” The engineer was decidedly unsettled. He could not blame him as he had always refused to discuss this subject.

“I am a frost giant.”

A few moments of silence passed before Tony answered. “I feel the swelling music, but I think I’m missing the point.”

Loki thought about how little it meant in Midgard to be from a foreign race or how customary adoptions were. He was glad that for his dear friend these things were habitual. “As such I have a significantly lower body temperature.” The trickster then transformed into his real form.

“Beautiful even as a Smurf. Rocking the red eyes, Loki,” Tony allowed, a sly smile on his face.

As the god approached him, the Midgardian suddenly went red hot again. “Smoldering is a good look on you, too.”

“This is gonna be interesting”, was all Tony managed to say until his lips were captured by the trickster’s.

There was steam rising from were their skin touched. Still, it was not unpleasant. It was a rejuvenating experience, like being next to the fire after a day spent in the snow. Loki did not exactly feel the cold, but it made for an exciting contrast when he met Tony’s flame.

This time it was urgent. The god had thought for a brief period of time that he was going to lose him. The engineer was enjoying whatever life he had left. Loki pushed his partner into the wall, biting his lip for good measure. Said wall resisted for about a minute before it burst in flames. The trickster quenched it with a flap of his hand, but his focus was gone for the time it took to do it, so the mortal easily twisted him until he found himself with his back to the desk and a tongue on his neck. Said desk froze quite fast.

It continued in this vein. Tony melted the candelabra. Loki iced over the bed. The rug and the curtains were affected by the steam. All in all, they rather destroyed the whole room.

*

They were awoken by a knock on Loki’s bedroom door. Currently situated on the floor, with a pillow, since Tony was in his customary position, and a quilt covering them, they were both startled when the door moved. It was Thor. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he lapsed into silence. So he saw the room, them.

“Do what you came here to do then go. Seriously, what’s up with gods and waking up at ass o’clock in the morning?” Tony complained and buried his face further into Loki’s flank. He compliantly petted the engineer’s head.

“I… did not know you would be here.” Thor seemed at a loss for words. Astonishment was written clearly on his face, though joy was not too far behind.

“I bewitched your brother. You don’t believe me? Ask Fandral. How is he, by the way?”

“He is with the healers. Fandral will be fine. Congratulations on passing your first challenge. May fortune continue to favor you”, The God of Thunder said with sincerity.

“That’s good. Thank you”, the engineer raised his head, said his piece, then leaned his head back on Loki’s stomach.

Thor shook his head, incredulous. “Mother wants to see you before noon.” He was addressing the trickster. Who already knew how this particular conversation was going to go. Probably was something about his feelings and how much he cared about the engineer. He’d rather Tony had already passed his challenges for this conversation to take place.

“I shall see her in a couple of days.”

Both his brother and his lover turned to look at him, one with a distraught expression, the other one with a raised eyebrow and a shrug.

“Very well, brother.”  

 *

For the second challenge Loki noticed Odin had prepared something special. He could see unfurled on the entire length and width of the ceremonial plaza a puzzle that had the gods vexed. It was a series of strange symbols that were ordered in a sequence with a final tile missing. The problem would be solved by choosing one of the six slates to be the correct tablet that continues the progression. Rumor had it that the All-father managed to elucidate the mystery the swiftest: a little over half an hour.

Loki could see what Odin was going for. He had probably heard about the intelligence of the mortal, and wanted to prove that he was wiser than anybody. Of course, that was not the only way to establish if someone was gifted in such a way, but seeing as he was famous for this answering this conundrum, this method it shall be.  

“As a warrior you must show that you posses intelligence as well as an ability to fight. This is the most complicated puzzle on Asgard. Your task is to choose the correct tile in the sequence. You have one minute. Commence.”

Tony points to a tile after 35 seconds. The whole of Asgard is amazed.

“Correct. How did you do it?”

The engineer scrutinized him suspiciously. “What does it matter?”

“I will not have you guess.” Odin was furious and apparently Tony knew that particular emotion well enough to answer.

“There’s no way I would have been able to solve all that in just one minute, especially with how you said it was complicated. So I looked at the six tiles: the one with the most common elements must be the correct one.” The All-father frowned, not understanding. Jane, on the other hand, smiled. Let us see how Odin dealt with the devious works of mortals. “I know it’s difficult, so there are no symbols in there that do no pertain to the sequence somehow. I see the circle thingy in the first position on four of the six tiles and the square figure on two. It’s obvious it’s the circle because otherwise if I only had the symbol that is there, and I’d be guessing, it would have just cut the possible tablets to two. The only problem with this particular way of thinking is the fact that is true for all situations.  I kept only the most common characters and voilà: that’s the solution.”

The All-father was livid. He had not thought there was another way to solve the puzzle. “You do not know the sequence.”

“You never said I had to know anything about it. Just find the correct tile. How I managed to find it doesn’t matter as long as it is the right one,” Tony shrugged.

Loki had an inkling about the way this was going to end, and it was not anything pleasant.

“Challenge failed.” Odin pronounced without a single thread of doubt entering his voice. The trickster took a bite out of an apple with a bit more viciousness then necessary. Tony sighed, rolled his eyes while the gods of Asgard were in an uproar.

The most noticeable one was Thor. “What is this madness, father? He completed the challenge.”

The God of Mischief considered the position the All-father was in: on the one hand, he had already declared the trial as failed, on the other hand, the Aesir looked ready to rebel. They loved the engineer since they saw him as a victim of Loki’s scheming and he had given them quite the demonstration the other day. The gods enjoyed seeing a good fight.

Odin finally spoke, “The challenge is still failed. However, if he is unsuccessful in the next one, he has won the right to a fourth.”

That calmed the Aesir down, but Loki was not peaceful in the slightest. The challenges were only going to get harder. Jane leaned toward Thor whispering something, while he made eye contact with Frigga for the first time since his arrival in Asgard. He shook his head disappointed. Then he turned to Tony and smiled at him. He absent mindedly heard the queen leave the table. After a time, he heard Odin following her.

*

“A warrior of Asgard needs to be worthy.” Odin paused. It would not be an exaggeration to call Loki’s interior monologue a slew of denials. Frigga went white. There was a frown on Thor’s face as if he were suspicious. “You must lift Mjolnir.”

The trickster wanted to stare at Tony’s face as the disappointment to have lost a trial, and the knowledge that the fourth one would be as hopeless, registered. Wanted to see the harm he had caused. However he did not see desperation in the engineer’s eyes. He noticed instead a calculating glint and all his plans for somehow conserving the mortal’s life disappeared, leaving only confusion behind. Then he remembered Extremis. And Jarvis. He wished his optimism was not in vain.

Loki leaned back. He took a sip of the wine. Smirked. It was the moment to decide, in with Tony, or out with the world. And he had been on the engineer side for longer than he cared to actually contemplate. Which gave him another answer that was not important at the moment. He caught a glance the engineer aimed at him as Thor was depositing the hammer at his feet, all the while gnashing his teeth.

The trickster started to bewilder Odin and enrage the Aesir during the time it took for Tony rearrange something with his fingers.

“I did not raise you to be this disdainful toward another life,” The All-father said with a mournful air.

The trickster smirked. “We are all waiting to see how it will end. Why not revel in it?”

“Loki!” the queen whispered, shocked.

He followed Dr. Foster’s eyes as they traveled between him and Tony, then gripped Thor’s sleeve. She minutely shook her head. The God of Thunder calmed from his tense stance.

Odin turned to look at the engineer, just as he was murmuring something to Mjolnir. Thankfully, Thor realized this as well and signaled something to Fandral, making him rise. The arrogant blond seemed a lot less resentful of Tony since he was burned to a crisp. He did not try to understand.

“I will not simply stand here.”

Loki conjured green flames to surround the gods. “Of course not, you will sit.”

He could feel Odin attempt to extinguish the flames. Still, he could glimpse from the corner of his eyes that the engineer was not finished <with> his instructions. The trickster knew he could not overpower the All-father, but in this particular case he had put his conviction, which meant that he could not be overwhelmed by him, either. He could feel the pressure of the magic and he thought about what he needed to do. Then he merely did it.

The flames grew.

It was the ice cold feel which they were emitting that made the gods silent. For Frigga, it was the fact that he got the upper hand in the fight with Odin. In all the turmoil, Tony had finished what he was doing. So, when Loki refocused his attention on the engineer, everyone followed his lead.

Tony called Mjolnir to him. And the mighty hammer came.

The engineer nodded at Loki to thank him. He received one in return. That was when everyone in Asgard realized they were a team. Tony was not anyone’s victim and Loki was not the vicious monster. Not to him, at least. Both were foes one should fear.

Thor slapped a hand on the table in victory, while Dr. Foster gave her own shout, “Good job, Tony!”

“How did you manage that?” Odin demanded, infuriated. It was not a good day to be king of Asgard.

“I’m not telling,” Tony shrugged.

Odin was infuriated by the engineer’s words. “You are to tell me immediately.”

“Nope. Not gonna happen. Why?” Tony’s laugh had an edge to it. “So you could find some other absurd reason to declare the challenge half failed and give me another one? I’ll die of old age if I play this game. How about no? Live with the mystery.”

The All-father jaw was clenched tightly. “How do I know you did not simply lift the spell?”

Tony smiled. “Don’t gods know these things?” Ah, and here it was, the revenge for something he could not answer at the time. Dr. Foster just laughed freely. Tony went on, “Anyway, you are welcome to choose anyone to try to lift it.”

When no one could successfully call Mjolnir to them, Odin raised himself, making the trickster tense.

“Impossible,” he rumbled.

“Why would it be impossible? Wasn’t it supposed to be very possible since you gave it as a challenge? And just to remind you, I’m going to die if I don’t pass them. Now who’s disdainful of another’s life?”

 The All-father was speechless. Thankfully for him, because Loki rather enjoyed watching him squirm, Frigga raised herself and declared the challenge passed. A sense of relief so profound was felt then by the trickster that he could barely realize what was happening around him.

The queen then proceeded to welcome Tony as a citizen of Asgard. A mischievous grin appeared on the engineer’s face, nearly provoking Frigga into a stutter. Loki suddenly knew what his lover was thinking about and felt a similar smirk make its way onto his features.

Thor gave a somewhat self-deprecating laugh. The Warriors Three groaned, while Sif was rubbing a hand over her forehead. Amora, for her part, appeared indecisive of whether to be upset or content. Someone in the crowd of gods whispered, though the silence was so pressing the he could be herd as clear as if he had he had yelled, “They are identical.”

Like it was a signal, both their smiles turned sly. Loki called Mjolnir to him and absolutely no one was surprised when it came.

“Thank you, brother, for loaning it to us,” he said, handing the hammer.

Thor beamed while Frigga’s breathing hitched, “Anytime, brother.”

*

“Extremis gives you access to all kinds of technology. And on Asgard, that means it gives you access to magic.” Loki was fairly awed by that.

“Not really. I can see the spells put on objects. For example, if I had to choose between you and one of your copies, it wouldn’t be any help. The same with your pinching spell. I don’t see it coming.”

“What did you do to Mjolnir?”

“Well, we have this thing on Earth called computer code. We write that using programming language, one of the earliest ones being C++. It’s old, but in this case, it fit. I only changed the words a bit to fit the statement. So we have: If (he be worthy), {whoever holds this hammer shall the power of Thor}, else if (he is Tony Stark & Loki Lie-smith), {he shall posses the power of Thor}, else {he or she shall not posses the power of Thor}. Thanks for buying me time, Odin would have blown a gasket if he caught me.”

“It was simply a matter of deciding on whose side I was on in the conflict. Though I usually find it difficult to choose a side, in any argument, it was different this time. Because you were on my side, on the fence. That made it easier somehow. You are now caught in between two worlds just as I am. And I find myself intrigued that I now have a companion to share it with.” ‘I trust you’ was heard but not said. Not yet.

Tony smiled. “I always thought that was the better view. On the fence.” ‘I trust you too.’

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Alexandra, for being an awesome beta! Please point out any mistakes you might find and thank you for all your support.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize!
> 
> Update: Friday.

 

POV: Frigga

Frigga heard the crunching of leaves beneath his boots before he said anything. Though, the queen knew that if she heard him coming without a warning spell it was only because he wished her to.

“My lady, it has been brought to my attention that you were waiting to speak to me.”

That was a enormous understatement seeing as Frigga had wanted to talk to Loki for a while, but when she first sent Thor to ensure that they would meet, her eldest son had returned flushed and motivated that perhaps another time would be better. After that, the trickster had been busy showing the engineer around, going as far as to take him to visit Hel. She had not wanted to intrude on the couple, so she left them be.

Until that morning when she made the decision to go to her son personally. Unfortunately, Frigga did not find him in the drawing room of his wing. She found Tony there, surrounded by books Loki had gathered, studying something intensely. He absentmindedly received her request to talk to her son and was back to his books before she left the room. The queen would not have been willing to swear that he even remembered her coming. But here the trickster was.

“I have been. Since the morning.”

“My apologies. I was not on Asgard at the time.”

“No need. Frankly, I am amazed that the Iron Dragon even remembered my being there.”

“The Iron Dragon? This will amuse him greatly,” Loki smirked as if already imagining it. “He apparently noted all the visitors on a piece parchment. I have quite the list of Aesir to visit, before retiring tonight,” he said pleasantly enough.

If only that did anything to soften the blow of her son already inventing excuses for leaving the conversation early. It might not even be subterfuge. Still, she remembered entire days spent in his company.

“I understand. Where were you, if I may ask? I did not know there would departures or arrivals at the Bifrost today.”

“On Midgard. It was a matter that needed to be handled with delicacy so I did not use the Bifrost.”

“You built if for something else, I gather.” Loki nodded, but stayed silent. “I wish you would share your plans with me like you once did, my son.” She sighed.

“Do you know, the mortals have the most interesting proverbs. Nuggets of wisdom. I am especially fond of one that has been told to me about the past. Perhaps I only find it this useful because I presume that the speaker understands what I have been through. It goes like this: the past is a different country, they do things differently there.”

Frigga smiled. It was rather bitter sweet. She realized that his view of things had changed, but also she comprehended who the person was. The queen remembered brown eyes staring her down, accusing her of hurting Loki. “You are aware that you seem to have reached home, whenever you are in his presence. Such ease. I cannot fathom how I did not see that missing from your behavior before.”

Loki’s eyes gleamed, amused. “They have a saying for that as well.”

“However, you will not tell me what that is.”

“See, out of all the Aesir, you still know me best.”

She wanted to shout that she still loved him. He was forever her son, and nothing could change that. Though she knew that was not what had angered him so much. He was upset that they had hidden the truth of his birth from him all those years. Loki felt betrayed by the fact that Frigga had gone along with Odin’s plan all that time, effectively choosing her husband’s side.

“I apologize for not having said anything – ”

He interrupted her. “It is done, no use apologizing about it.” And Frigga knew she was not forgiven. It was just acceptance from his part. This had happened. He had already moved on. Unfortunately, he did so without his mother as a trusted person. She had missed her chance.

Still, he was here, with them. Perhaps in time, she would regain that trust.

“I worry about your brother.”

Loki had a somber expression on his handsome face. “Every time you know half way through a story that it would not end happily, it is indeed sad. Still, they have some time together. These are, after all, the perils of finding love among the mortals.”

“You will not have to face these dangers.”

The trickster snorted. “Tony has almost died at least six times in the last five mortal years. I would be a fool if I expected him to stray from this pattern. Then again, he survived each time. And I have had my share of similar experiences. The future is bound to be quite interesting.” 

Frigga intake of breath was made in sheer terror. Loki, on the other hand, only smirked.

“Do not worry about Thor. I have a feeling that he will change things around here.”

“If not, you could always nudge him in the right direction.”

“Precisely.”

The trickster raised himself off the bench. “Mortals also have this gem that changes colors depending on the type of light it shines on it. It is called alexandrite. I think it suits me.” He took her hand. “You know I do not trust you. However, I still care for you deeply. Should you ever need my help, Tony’s or simply require assistance, touch this pendant saying my name. I will come as soon as possible.” He placed a necklace with an alexandrite pendant in her hand. Then, Loki straightened, nodded a final time and left.

As she watched him go, Frigga felt pride. He walked with a self-confidence that showed their mistake and subsequent burdens placed upon him had not managed to break the trickster. He was still moving forward. And now, he had a companion to be with him, hopefully every step of the way. What more could she want for him?

“For what it is worth, I approve of him.”

The trickster did not stop. He simply gave a smile over his shoulder and kept walking.

*

POV: Bruce

Bruce’s day was going fine. It rarely went past fine when he’s his friend had been… gone for seventeen days, and everybody was in denial.

Firstly, his A.I. and the robots were frankly serene. Their explanation: they would start worrying after six months were done. Never mind that Tony should have been back by now. After all, who was he to deny them the possibility of ignoring all evidence of the contrary? The engineer left them in his care, but that care didn’t include him smashing their hopes and dreams.

Secondly, his two best friends. They were living in the denial until the end of their lives because they had been spoiled by Tony’s habit of beating the odds. Both Pepper and Rhodey admitted that they knew that to be so late meant that he was probably no longer breathing, but they were expecting him to walk through the door, cracking jokes, anyway.

Thirdly Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries, who were in denial simply because they couldn’t afford to lose Tony. He personally thought the director was going to suffer an attack of some kind when he found out that the engineer hadn’t left him any secret plan or design. Sucks to be him.

Of course, some people just weren’t decided. Like when Agent Romanoff suddenly twitched and said: “He can’t be dead.”

They were called at S.H.I.E.L.D. to suffer through an interrogation. The subject of said questioning was the whereabouts of Tony Stark. Bruce’s part had devolved into subtly trying to convince him to hand over any schematic. As if.

Agent Barton was right behind her. “Right? It’s too dignified.”

“I had my money on him being crushed by some kind of machine.”

“What, like live by the machine, die by the machine?” The archer seemed to consider that. “It works. I had it on the suit’s power source being depleted mid-flight. Splat!”

“That’s disturbing,” Bruce admitted, while Capt. Rogers said, aghast: “Were you really betting on how your colleague would die?”

“It’s a thing we all have. He’s got money on my dying by my arrow – ”

“That’s where I got the idea,” The assassin quipped.

“And on Tasha being shot,” Agent Barton continued.

“Apparently, the chances decrease the closer you get,” Agent Romanoff explained.

Bruce nodded. Capt. Rogers thought about it for a second. “Tell me this then, when he said genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, he was serious?”

“Yeah,” The doctor said. “He was keeping a lot of people afloat. And now he’s not.” That effectively shattered their good mood.

*

Bruce had another problem. Someone had let the military know that Tony Stark had died, and now they wanted their ‘property’ back, namely him. Apparently, the engineer still had some friends there, read people who wanted stuff built by him, that were willing to turn a blind eye to him sheltering the Other Guy. Now though, they were coming after him, starting with a call from their most arrogant general, Gen. Ross. Jarvis offered his help and the doctor put the phone on speaker hoping that an uppity British voice would calm the situation a bit. He wasn’t exactly hoping for miracles, here.

“So, Stark finally kicked the bucket.”

“You only get to brag about outliving him after you single handedly dispose of an armed nuclear missile,” Bruce said dryly.

“I think I deserve a little more respect from someone who is basically military property,” Gen. Ross sneered.

“You would think that,” The doctor retorted. Before the clash could escalate any further, Jarvis intervened.

“What’s the basis for your argument?”

“Who’s talking?” The general’s paranoia was pretty obvious.

“I am Mr. Stark’s P.A.”

“Glad to see the bastard’s dead, aren’t you?” The general chuckled.

Oh damn, he didn’t just go there with Jarvis. The A.I. paused enough time to make everyone understand that his answer was not appropriate for polite conversation. Then asked again. “What’s the basis for your argument?” his voice icy.

Gen. Ross answered in an arrogant voice. “The Hulk was made by the military. Our resources: our material, our money, our people.”

There’s something about Jarvis that is shark-like. The way he gave the general just enough rope to strangle himself. All the while being oh-so-polite.

“The Hulk is a being that according to intellectual property rights is Dr. Banner’s. As such, for you to do anything to replicate the experiment would be to infringe on said rights. The military resources should be covered by Mr. Stark’s acquisitioning the, I quote, <<rights to any and all research, related research and all third party projects dependent on the military that went into the gamma radiation and its applicability to the Manhattan Project>>.”

“We thought that was because he was honoring his father.”

“It was not.” Jarvis’ words sounded like a slap. “You asked for 2 billion dollars for those rights, which Mr. Stark paid without complaint.”

Bruce was starting to get where the predator attitude in Jarvis came from, but still. For Tony to have filled the patent was another moment of brilliance for him. However, for the engineer to pay so much money just so he could free him was too much. And to add insult to injury he had to go and get himself killed by the King of Gods, before he could thank him.

Ross stayed silent so Jarvis continued, “Of course, that means you are left with Dr. Banner. Whom you cannot own, as that would be illegal and you cannot offer financial incentive, as he has recently come into an inheritance which would make him independently wealthy courtesy of Mr. Stark.”

“He’s in breach of contract. It sure as hell didn’t involve him transforming into a monster or trashing through the place.”

“The contract is related to gamma radiation and his trashing through the place is viewed as a third party project dependent on the military. Hence, it’s Mr. Stark’s problem.”

“Stark’s dead,” pronounced Gen. Ross.

“You are right, of course,” there was a shade of irritation in Jarvis’ voice. “Now, the research belongs to Dr. Banner to do with it as he wishes.”

“He can’t have everything. He didn’t pay that much,” denied the general. Bruce was thinking along the lines of: how much more they would have wanted Tony to pay?

“Mr. Stark didn’t offer you money. He asked you for an estimate and you gave a number to him. Your price was met. If you have seller’s remorse, I am sorry, but you signed a contract.”

There was silence in Bruce’s rooms suddenly. He could feel himself holding his breath. This was it, he was free.

“Has Dr. Banner’s enforced involvement with the military and other such groups come to an end then?” asked Jarvis in a voice that promised hell should he not get the right answer.

“Yes, it has.”

There was a click as Gen. Ross ended the call without warning.

“That was quite rude,” Jarvis commented. Bruce was still at a loss for words. “Now, might be good moment to tell you that sir is alive.”

The doctor took a deep breath and started cleaning his glasses. After a few moments more he finally gathered enough of his wits to ask: “Let me guess, he wanted to wait until he was pronounced dead so he could see what the military might come up with.”

“And get a recording of Gen. Ross saying you have nothing to do with them anymore.”

Damn it all to hell. Now, he was going to be like Pepper and Rhodey, never fully believeing the engineer was dead ever again.

“Don’t get me wrong, Tony’s intelligent, but I never knew him to be the type to make such convoluted plans: get the patent, the research, put in the clause about third party projects. It doesn’t really sound like him.”

“What does it sound like sir, is cashing in a favor. This time from the God of Mischief. Then, of course, the money was his and I filled the patent.”

“So, Loki plan saved me, huh? I guess the two of them are a pair to be reckoned with.”

“I hope you will not mind saying that to sir, too. Your opinion weighs more than most people’s.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell him.” Then he just realized the part that was added at the end. “Does that mean that you passed the bar, Jarvis?”

“Yes, Dr. Banner. I graduated Harvard law, after sir made a significant contribution to the school, though I did so via the internet.” Jarvis paused then said doubtfully. “It wasn’t terribly complicated but he also assures me that half the work is studying after the drunken parties.”

Bruce snorted. “Wanted you to understand human nature better?”

“That and he was bored with applying for patents.”

“Of course he was.”

“One of the first claims I submitted was for my advancement in writing patents.”

The doctor chuckled and shook his head. “Of course you did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Earlier in the chapter, Loki refers to the saying: home is where the heart is. This is what he doesn't tell Frigga.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

 

POV: Mistress Death

Mistress Death appeared in the middle of the children, with a slight puff of smoke. She would have her turn at reaping them all in their time. Now, she had some news to impart.

“What’s _in_ this thing?” The archer exclaimed while looking into his glass.

She laughed breezily. The assassin twitched.

“I am Mistress Death.”

She watched as realization dawned on their faces. The way they were immediately terrified and reaching for their weapons. They knew whatever it was, chances were it would not do them any good. Nonetheless, they were not the type to sit idly by, but the kind of creatures who fought until their last breath.

“I know you all,” she announced and simply regarded them as they arranged themselves in a semicircle around her.

The Mistress then nodded to Clint. “The little hawk who escaped me every time. You would soar, but you would not fall.” He gave a small, controlled shudder. She continued with Natasha. “The spider. Black Widow. You bring destruction to others, but have managed to avoid it so far.” She received a glare which made her laugh, once again. The Mistress turned toward Steve. “Captain America who has managed to bypass me by falling asleep in the ice.” She saw him clench his jaw and angled herself to the next: Bruce. “The hulk who has managed to kill himself twice, only to be saved by his berserker counterpart.” His eyes turned green. She went on to Thor. “The thunderer whom I almost had, but then lost.”

As she approached the end of the circle, she got one of her hands from under the veil and held it out to him. She knew that the limb would not look like a woman’s anymore. Still, Tony came closer. He took her hand. Even pressed a kiss on the white skeleton. “The Merchant of Death. You brought me so many for one with such a short life and yet you still elude me.”

Then, because she kept the best for last, Loki. She took his face in her hands, caressed his brow, the curve of his lips. “Finally the God of Chaos.” She could feel him startle. “Why so surprised, little god? You call them random elements. I call them agents of chaos.” Her mirth was now crystalline, like water flowing out of a stream. “You had abandoned all hope of life and that is when you found it. Now you are desperate to evade me.” The mistress released him, returning to her place in front of them all.

She stayed silent for a long time. “Those names are not yours because you want them. They are forced on you. You do not accept them. Not here, among allies. Not ever. You cover them with disdain. With professionalism. Sometimes even laugh at them. You are Clint, Natasha, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Tony and Loki. Which is why I offer you this against the one who calls himself my lover: for a month, if you can gather your courage, face him all and only you, like mortals, he will be one too.”

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your support! And big cup of hot chocolate to Alexandra for being my beta, thank you!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
> 
> Update: Saturday (tomorrow).

 

POV: Bruce

“The Other Guy has protected me from everything. I think a little mortality will help us know each other a little bit better.”

The bit of planet the Bifrost deposited them on was some kind of depression surrounded by rocks. There were two entrances to where they had engaged with Thanos. Well, Loki got to duel him, but the rest of them each had a part to play. Apparently the trickster had expected the fight to happen here, because Bruce’s job was to watch one of the openings.

Continued survival was a powerful incentive. Both for the Other Guy and for him. He had to admit he had not been as welcoming of the green monster as he could have been and the green monster could stand to communicate better. In the end it was decided that they work at their best together. Thus the Other Guy now featured brown eyes and he was permanently green-eyed. Of course, that did not mean that all was right with the world or that kids were giggling at all the pigs flying, but they had a kind of working relationship on a probationary basis, in which they basically tried to survive.

Now he could give helpful suggestions by seeing through his eyes. It was not his body, but he would think ‘jump there, it will make the rocks fall on them’ and it usually happened. The trust between him them increased every time he was right.

It was strange. The moment when he could finally kill the monster made them closer. Since he had helped in New York, his opinion of the Other Guy had colored a bit. Enough to not see death as the only answer. Now, it had gained a bit of depth.

Still. Even if he were to die, he had won.

He had tamed the beast.

*

POV: Thor

“I was born again by being mortal. Made better. Mortality is not something I fear.”

He was, according to Loki’s plan, to defend the opening opposite the berserker’s and he would do so to the best of his abilities. Which were not lacking, now that he was doing the right thing. Here he was, fighting alongside his brother, as a mortal, being surrounded by human warriors he recently met, but had somehow still carved a place into his heart and he felt like this was exactly what he should be doing. They had a chance of beating Thanos. Even if it was small, though knowing the trickster it certainly was not negligible, he was going to take it. No matter the consequences.

If he were to die, he was sure that Valhalla would welcome him.

*

POV: Clint

“It makes it worth it, if you have something to lose, doesn’t it? It did when I was a circus kid and it does now.”

Clint’s mission, his part of the plan, was to create a diversion for Thanos using his exploding arrows. Diversion for what, he didn’t know, Loki was playing it pretty close to the vest on this one. Like he did, actually, with all his plans. Though the archer had a feeling that Stark knew it too. Brave new world, huh?

He didn’t care one way or the other as long as they got the job done. It was something that stayed with him from his days at the circus. ‘Use any means necessary, make all the sacrifices needed, the show must go on and it must be good.’ The archer drew the string of the bow taking aim. He felt a tug at his insides like he used to feel every time before he jumped off the trapeze. Clint grinned.

If he were to die, he would die knowing he had the done the most spectacular jump ever.

*

POV: Steve

“My future was always relative until the serum. Then I got it and not even crashing a plane in the ice could kill me. But the people around me still died. I’d want to be like them again. Breakable.”

His mission was to take the gauntlet, which was like a glove only made of gold with little gems of different colors, when there was a change in the battle. He didn’t know what that change would be, since Loki had only told them their parts right before coming here, but the trickster had said that if he kept his eyes open, he wouldn’t miss it.

There it was, Clint had started bombarding Thanos with explosive arrows. Steve moved in, tore off the gauntlet, threw it clear, then held on to his shield.

If he were to die, he would die knowing he had gotten his wish. He was breakable once again.

*

POV: Natasha

“It’s like a promise of rest, one that you know you can’t give yourself because you don’t deserve it.”

Natasha’s instructions were the most convoluted of what she had gathered from the levels of uncertainty that the others displayed. She was supposed to replace something. That was the entirety of her knowledge about the situation. Loki had smirked when she hadn’t been satisfied with her role and said that she would figure it out when the moment came.

When Iron Man, his armor now golden, had stopped next to her and handed over one of his flight stabilizers – which didn’t look at all how it did less then a minute ago –, she made the connection with Thanos’ gauntlets. Especially the one she had just seen Steve tug off. The spy knew that she not only had to replace the one on the ground, but she also had to return the real one to Tony. Natasha smiled and moved, silent as a shadow.

If she were to die, she would finally stop fighting.

*

POV: Tony

“I always fight harder when my back is against the wall.”

Tony actually knew the plan, which made it possible for him to notice when it was progressing to the point when he had to give over his projected flight stabilizer. He took the gauntlet back, applied the hologram again, then worked on bullshiting everyone that all parts of the suit were present and accounted for. To continue to do that, it meant he had to avoid banking unexpectedly, which required some creative flying.

If he were to die, he would have fought his hardest.

*

POV: Loki

“The last time I abandoned hope. This time I have too much of it.”

Loki’s lips suddenly curved into a savage smile. This was the moment when he forced Thanos to do a spell through the gauntlet. As such, he made himself about twenty copies. The trickster felt himself frozen on the spot, along with his illusions, by a curse which had not come through the gauntlet. However, the next one had to be made with the help of the infinity gems if Thanos had any hope of killing twenty of him.

And if he were to die, he would have died defending the nine realms instead of destroying them.

*

POV: Heimdall

Heimdall was standing watch. He was supposed to bring word of the fight to his king and queen, but it was not looking good. Not as they all predicted, because as he was observing, the Mad Titan was crumbled into a heap, having effectively killed himself while trying to get the trickster. Well, that was the one good thing Loki ever did.

Unexpectedly they were about to die, even as Thanos breathed his last. Thor and the berserker were overwhelmed. The archer was falling through the air from the powerful spells of the duel and his closeness to the edge of the cliff. The captain was slowly being overpowered by the wind the Mad Titan had conjured and was being pushed toward a jagged crack in the mountain behind him. The assassin was suddenly facing two enormous sentinels who had leaped over the rocks. The mortal god had stopped such a guard of his own but had needed to turn sharply in the air and lost his balance. And the trickster was frozen in place by the same spell which had helped him moments before, while the reflective gauntlet was heading towards him at great speed.   

They were all in a staring contest with death when they did something he could not have anticipated. They blinked. And did everything in their power to save an ally.

Thor used his lighting to aid the berserker whose own thrown stone caught the guards unprepared, just as the god’s tendrils of fire had. The archer, after having been tossed around due to Thanos’ winds, was caught by the assassin. Using her as a catapult and the speed with which he traveled, he kicked a guard so hard, he flew into the edges of the cave behind the captain. Meanwhile, said captain was occupied with throwing his shield at the remaining guard. The mortal god was using his descent to nudge Loki to safety, though at the same time the trickster did one of his specialty transporter spells to protect the Iron Dragon’s body from the fall. In the end, Loki was caught in the spell by being touched, sending them both to safety a little farther. 

It was a perfect moment of serendipity. Or rather, of sacrifice.

They gathered around Thanos as he finally gave his last breath. He could see on their faces the bafflement at being alive. There were a lot of glances being thrown around, as if they were afraid to speak. Suddenly they all started to chuckle, then it transformed into a full blown laugh. Even Heimdall smiled. They had done it. And survived to tell the story.

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The last chapter. It has been a wonderful ride and thank you all for your support during it! Of course, a big thank you to my wonderful beta, Alexandra, without her this story wouldn't have been posted. 
> 
> Thank you all who have managed to reach this far, it is my greatest pleasure to have written something to entertain you!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

POV: Tony

Tony closed his eyes, enjoying a mouthful of pizza after nearly dying. Again.

“Want to tell us what the plan was?” asked Bruce absently while choosing a slice for himself.

“It all started with Loki reconstructing the gauntlet in the workshop from memory,” started Tony.

“Which prompted Tony to tell me that his armor was actually gold,” continued Loki.

“That brought up a discussion I had earlier with Mr. Lie-smith,” Jarvis intervened.

“During which I had learned about the mortal gold had reflective properties for radio waves.” finished Loki.

There was silence in the room. Finally Barton said: “You are not allowed to do that, finishing each others’ sentences, ever again. It’s disturbing. And worrying.”

Tony rolled his eyes, but made a gesture to the trickster to go ahead and explain his plan.

“I knew that Thanos was too powerful for me to actually kill, so I had to find a way to mislead him into doing it himself. That is why we exchanged the infinity gauntlet, an artifact of humongous magical power, to another one made from mortal gold, which has the advantage of reflecting spells. In order for it to work, the exchange had to be subtle. That is why Tony projected a hologram to make the gauntlet look like a part of his armor. When Thanos tried to kill me, the spell rebounded on him.”  

“Why didn’t you trust us?” questioned Cap.

Tony replied: “He trusted you to do the right thing, Agent Romanoff to do her job, the circus wunderkind to put the results before the means and the beaters not to care. Anything else and I’m afraid I’m gonna have to return you to the pink tutu phase.”

“I can see how that would seem far fetched, but we are a team. We have to trust each other.”  The team leader was showing. Only these weren’t the right kind of people to form any type of group.

“We are not a team,” Loki pronounced.

“You’re right,” Bruce admitted. “We are more like a family.”

The confusion on all their faces must have been hilarious. They had all passed offended a while ago.

“Think about it for a second. We don’t trust each other, but we know enough about the others to tell humiliating stories and to anticipate what they are going to do. Even Loki, we all expect him to do something unexpected. And we all satisfy the one condition that makes us automatically family: we would sacrifice our lives for each other.”

There was a lot of uncomfortable glancing after that particular announcement to the amusement of Bruce. Having had enough with the awkwardness, Tony raised his glass.

“To family.”

He was soon joined by the others.

“Steve, not with orange juice, you are embarrassing me,” he complained.

The man looked pointedly at Tony’s scotch. But he ended up saying a completely different thing. “Bruce has tea.”

“Black tea. It’s rich in caffeine. Which is very bad for you. Your juice is rich in Vitamin C.”

“This argument is backwards,” sighed Cap.

*

POV: Loki

Loki and Tony were standing alongside the gauntlet.

“What do you want to do with it?” his partner asked.

“Share the stones with the rest of the realms, put the gauntlet in Asgard.”

“What stone should we keep? Cause we sure as heck are keeping one.”

“I guess the question is: which one can we use the most?”

Loki regarded them. Soul, time, space, mind, reality and power. He passed his right hand over all of them. In the end the strength they used the most was imagination. What better than one who will fulfills their wishes?

“Reality.” Tony said just as the trickster’s fingers stopped at the yellow one.

Their grins turned identically wicked. Time to have some fun.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
